Package: sc-im Version: 0.8.3+ds-1 Severity: serious Justification: Policy 4.5
Hello! Thanks for packaging this interesting program. I noticed that the [debian/copyright] file seems to be inaccurate with respect to the [upstream license]. The [debian/copyright] file states: [...] Files: * Copyright: 2013-2021, Andrés Martinelli <andma...@gmail.com> License: BSD-4-Clause [...] which looks accurate, but then the documented license text is not a verbatim copy of the [upstream license]. Most notably, clause 3 (out of 4) is missing. Other minor differences are present. Please fix the debian/copyright file by including the correct verbatim copy of the upstream license text. [debian/copyright]: <https://tracker.debian.org/media/packages/s/sc-im/copyright-0.8.3ds-1> [upstream license]: <https://github.com/andmarti1424/sc-im/blob/b4cfc3fef326f78b8c683707f0819886ddcd82bd/LICENSE> Please note that clause 3 is the infamous "obnoxious advertising clause" [OAC], which, unfortunately, makes the 4-clause BSD license GPL-incompatible. [OAC]: <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/bsd.html> As a consequence, I would also recommend to not license debian/* files under GPL-2+, since having two incompatible licenses in the same package is risky (it could lead to a legally undistributable package, unless much care is taken to never mix the two parts up...). Maybe debian/* files could be relicensed under the terms of some non-copyleft permissive license (such as the Expat license or maybe the 3-clause BSD license...), if the copyright holder (Joshua Peisach) agrees. In the meanwhile, it would be really nice, if upstream could be persuaded to drop the [OAC], thus relicensing the program under the terms of the 3-clause BSD license. Why? Because the 4-clause BSD license is a deprecated license, which causes many GPL-compatibility troubles in the rare cases where it is still used. Since the upstream program copyright is currently held by one sole person, it is still pretty easy to switch to a better license: only one guy to be persuaded! :-) Please try and get in touch with upstream about this. Thanks for your time and dedication! Bye.
