Fixing "dep5-copyright-license-name-not-unique" and "missing-license-paragraph-in-dep5-copyright"

[T o n g]

Hi, 

I need to fix  "dep5-copyright-license-name-not-unique" and "missing-
license-paragraph-in-dep5-copyright" for my package. Ref, https://
lintian.debian.org/maintainer/suntong...@users.sourceforge.net.html#dbab

but I really don't know how to fix them. E.g., I found one example of 
fixing "dep5-copyright-license-name-not-unique" in 
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/net-luminis-build-plugin/0.2.0-2
and see how exactly it was fixed, from
http://launchpadlibrarian.net/226583095/net-luminis-build-
plugin_0.2.0-1_0.2.0-2.diff.gz
but think I've done that. Ref, my copyright file at
https://github.com/suntong/dbab/blob/master/debian/copyright

I've also tried to:

sed -i 's/BSD-3-Clause/BSD-3-clause/g' debian/copyright 

but that doesn't fix the problem．　

What's wrong? 
Please help. Thanks

Re: Fixing "dep5-copyright-license-name-not-unique" and "missing-license-paragraph-in-dep5-copyright"

[Ben Finney]

T o n g  writes:

> I need to fix  "dep5-copyright-license-name-not-unique" and "missing-
> license-paragraph-in-dep5-copyright" for my package. Ref, https://
> lintian.debian.org/maintainer/suntong...@users.sourceforge.net.html#dbab

For reference, the current ‘debian/copyright’ file can be seen in the
VCS .

> What's wrong? 

You have given two different long descriptions of the “License” with the
short name “BSD-3-clause”, and Lintian helpfully informs you of this
with the “dep5-copyright-license-name-not-unique” tag.

You should only give the license text used by upstream, once, in one
“License” field in that ‘debian/copyright’ file. All other references to
the same license should have “License: BSD-3-clause”, with just the
short name, no long description.

Now, what you're probably trying to do is to record the *grant* of
license — that's the text that says something like “You are free to
redistribute with or iwthout modifications under the conditions in the
BSD 3-clause license”.

The grant of license is quite commonly very different in different parts
of the work, and you'll want to record the verbatim text in
‘debian/copyright’. But that is not the license text, and so doesn't
belong in the “License” field.

Unfortunately, the version 1.0 specification for the copyright file
doesn't make this very clear; there is no distinct mention of the
license grant text, versus the text of the license.

I recommend you put the license grant text for each paragraph in a
“License-Grant” field for that paragraph. That field isn't defined in
the current specification, but is available for our use.

For example:

Files: *
Copyright: 2013-2015 Tong Sun 
License: BSD-3-Clause
License-Grant:
  We are the authors and we love you! You are free to redistribute
  this work under the BSD license in LICENSE.BSD.

Files: bin/dbab-svr
Copyright: 2013-2015 Tong Sun 
  Originally wrote by Piet Wintjens, email & date unknown
License: BSD-3-Clause
  I am Piet Wintjens, writing to you from the past; the BSD license
  is good and I grant you permission to redistribute this work under
  its conditions.


License: BSD-3-Clause
 Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
 modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
 are met:
 .
 […]

You should be seeking *verbatim* text from the copyright holders that
explicitly grants license, and record that in the copyright information.
I'm recommending the “License-Grant” field for that purpose.

-- 
 \  “By instructing students how to learn, unlearn, and relearn, a |
  `\ powerful new dimension can be added to education.” —Alvin |
_o__)Toffler, _Future Shock_, 1970 |
Ben Finney