Dear FTP Masters, CC [email protected], as it may be of general interest, CC [email protected] as it asks a related question,
there is an ongoing discussion about what are the exact requirements for documenting copyrights and licenses in Debian copyright files. I would like to ask you the following question: Do you require notices (also known as headers, boilerplates, exhibits, etc.) to be reproduced verbatime in Debian copyright files ? To my knowledge, the two most authoritative statements from your team are the following: 1) http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2006/03/msg00023.html - Its not enough to have the following two-liner: | On Debian systems, the complete text of the GNU General Public License | can be found in the `/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL' file. There are license headers, like the one used for GPL in the example below, you should use those. 2) http://ftp-master.debian.org/REJECT-FAQ.html You need to list all copyright information with all licenses in the copyright file itself. That one has to be the single point of information. Only files you find in /usr/share/common-licenses have a special exception here, everything else needs to be fully included! Some licenses include a template for “notices” (GPL), “exhibits” (MPL), etc., also called “headers” or “boilerplates”. In some packages, works licensed under the same terms, can be accompanied multiple notices that vary by using different program names (GPL), or contributor names (MPL). Do you require them to be reproduced verbatim, or is it acceptable to use a single replacement to represent all of them? More in details, one of the questions was to know if the reason for reproducing them is to include the disclaimer of warranty. Are there are other reasons ? Just in case, here are the example notice and exhibit from the GPL and MPL. GPL-3 (where “This program” is often replaced by the program's name): This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. . This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. . You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>. MPL 1.1: "The contents of this file are subject to the Mozilla Public License Version 1.1 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at http://www.mozilla.org/MPL/ . Software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" basis, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing rights and limitations under the License. . The Original Code is ______________________________________. . The Initial Developer of the Original Code is ________________________. Portions created by ______________________ are Copyright (C) ______ _______________________. All Rights Reserved. . Contributor(s): ______________________________________. . Alternatively, the contents of this file may be used under the terms of the _____ license (the "[___] License"), in which case the provisions of [______] License are applicable instead of those above. If you wish to allow use of your version of this file only under the terms of the [____] License and not to allow others to use your version of this file under the MPL, indicate your decision by deleting the provisions above and replace them with the notice and other provisions required by the [___] License. If you do not delete the provisions above, a recipient may use your version of this file under either the MPL or the [___] License." Have a nice day, -- Charles Plessy Tsurumi, Kanagawa, Japan -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [email protected] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [email protected] Archive: http://lists.debian.org/[email protected]
