Hi Andrey and Ansgar, Quoting Ansgar 🙀 (2026-02-02 16:55:28) > On Mon, 2026-02-02 at 19:27 +0500, Andrey Rakhmatullin wrote: > > It wasn't clear that you explicitly exclude debian/patches/ from the > > discussion and your questions. You even mentioned that "Sometimes I > > proactively license patches potential for upstream adoption > > same as upstream, but generally I don't".
The very next phrases sthat you mitted from above quote should clarify, that I do not generally copyleft-license patches, but instead consider patches generally uncertain to classify. But you are right, it was unclear (and as demonstrated it was easy to read out of context). Related to that, I now (since yesterday) add the following section to the debian/copyright file of packages that I maintain: Files: debian/patches/* Copyright: None License: None Comment: Patches are generally assumed not copyright-protected by default. Please list any patch with copyright claims separately. The intent is to make explicit that patches are neither implied to be licensed same as debian/* nor same as *. > Note that, for example, the GPL-2 contains this: > > "For an executable work, complete source code means all the source code > for all modules it contains, plus any associated interface definition > files, plus the scripts used to control compilation and installation of > the executable." > > The Debian packaging is (IMHO) "scripts used to control compilation and > installation of the executable". Thus the GPL-2 requires these to be > included under GPL-2-compatible terms. In what you quote, I can see how "an executable work" can affect the licensing of directly related "scripts used to control [it]", but not the other way around. I.e. I can only read the quote as saying, that a strongly licensed work cannot be weakened by weaker licensed helper tools. I am unable to read it as saying that stronger licensed helper tools affect the licensing of what they help getting built. - Jonas -- * Jonas Smedegaard - idealist & Internet-arkitekt * Tlf.: +45 40843136 Website: http://dr.jones.dk/ * Sponsorship: https://ko-fi.com/drjones [x] quote me freely [ ] ask before reusing [ ] keep private
