Package: mailavenger Version: 0.8.5-2 Severity: serious Justification: Policy 2.2.1
Hello, I [noticed] that package mailavenger includes some files which are derived from code originally released under the terms of the 4-clause BSD license, but their modifications are released under the terms of the GNU GPL v2 or later, or anyway the files are part of a whole released under the terms of the GNU GPL v3 or later. [noticed]: <https://tracker.debian.org/media/packages/m/mailavenger/copyright-0.8.5-2> The third clause in the 4-clause BSD license (the so-called "obnoxious advertising clause") is incompatible with both the GNU GPL v2 and the GNU GPL v3, as [stated] on the FSF license list. [stated]: <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#OriginalBSD> I believe this makes the package undistributable as is, hence the "serious" severity of the bug report. Luckily, the issue could be relatively easy to address. As far as [libasync/convertint.C] and [libasync/suio_vuprintf.C] are concerned, the parts covered by the 4-clause BSD license are copyrighted by the The Regents of the University of California. I think their general [re-licensing] applies, so the advertising clause may be dropped: the code is effectively re-licensed under the terms of the 3-clause BSD license (which is GPL-compatible!). [libasync/convertint.C]: <https://salsa.debian.org/debian/mailavenger/blob/76eaeca3c5b6f84f4e9b4b412503835298729a22/libasync/convertint.C> [libasync/suio_vuprintf.C]: <https://salsa.debian.org/debian/mailavenger/blob/76eaeca3c5b6f84f4e9b4b412503835298729a22/libasync/suio_vuprintf.C> [re-licensing]: <ftp://ftp.cs.berkeley.edu/pub/4bsd/README.Impt.License.Change> As far as [libasync/getopt_long.c] and [util/getopt_long.c] are concerned, the parts covered by the 4-clause BSD license are copyrighted by the The NetBSD Foundation, Inc. As far as I can tell, [NetBSD switched] to the 2-clause BSD license. I am not 100 % sure this implies that any file copyrighted by NetBSD Foundation under the 4-clause BSD license may now be effectively considered as under the 2-clause BSD license (and thus GPL-compatible!), but it may be worth getting in touch with the Foundation and asking... I recommend doing so, in order to get confirmation. [libasync/getopt_long.c]: <https://salsa.debian.org/debian/mailavenger/blob/76eaeca3c5b6f84f4e9b4b412503835298729a22/libasync/getopt_long.c> [util/getopt_long.c]: <https://salsa.debian.org/debian/mailavenger/blob/76eaeca3c5b6f84f4e9b4b412503835298729a22/util/getopt_long.c> [NetBSD switched]: <https://www.netbsd.org/about/redistribution.html#why2clause> Please fix these issues. Thanks for your time. Bye!
