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  • Copyright of debian/*

    From Matthew Vernon@21:1/5 to All on Sat Jan 2 17:10:07 2021
    Hi,

    I have noticed some packages using the newer machine-readable copyright
    format, but not specifying any copyright for debian/*

    To give an example based on the docs[1]

    Files: *
    Copyright: 1975-2010 Ulla Upstream
    License: GPL-2+

    Files: docs/*.1
    Copyright: 2010 Manuela Manpager
    License: GPL-2+

    Let us assume that Ulla Upstream has nothing to do with the contents of debian/* (and that e.g. the git history lets us be sure of that).

    What does that mean about the copyright status of debian/* ? If I want
    to re-use a file therein in another package, can I do so?

    Thanks,

    Matthew

    [1] https://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/

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  • From John Scott@21:1/5 to All on Sat Jan 2 11:14:04 2021
    Copy: [email protected] (Matthew Vernon)

    On Saturday, January 2, 2021 10:30:56 AM EST Matthew Vernon wrote:
    I have noticed some packages using the newer machine-readable copyright format, but not specifying any copyright for debian/*
    That's not good practice. You should ask the package maintainer to include
    such information in debian/copyright. They would know the history best. Be
    sure to check for a wildcard though, like
    Files: *
    as that could apply to debian/.

    What does that mean about the copyright status of debian/* ? If I want
    to re-use a file therein in another package, can I do so?
    If the copyright file doesn't specify the license, and there are no comments in the files specifying the license, then the maintainer of that package really should fix that. That leaves the license ambiguous and you may not make any assumptions about your use of the file.

    I am not a lawyer, or a DD/DM, so more knowledgeable individuals may chime in. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----

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  • From =?UTF-8?Q?David_Pr=c3=a9vot?=@21:1/5 to All on Sat Jan 2 19:10:01 2021
    Hi,

    Le 02/01/2021 à 11:30, Matthew Vernon a écrit :

    I have noticed some packages using the newer machine-readable copyright format, but not specifying any copyright for debian/*

    FWIW, I do that in most of the (simple) packages I’m maintaining: I’m
    fine using the same license as upstream, hence the “Files: *” catch the correct license also for debian/*.

    The debian/ directory in those packages may have very little
    copyrightable content anyway (not sure a trivial override in d/rules or
    data in d/u/metadata would eligible for example). The only creativity is
    often limited to the package description, that is directly copied (or
    adapted) from upstream, or a patch cherry-picked (or forwarded)
    upstream, where I’m not even the copyright owner (upstream is, so again, “Files: *” catches the correct information).

    Regards

    David

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  • From Matthew Vernon@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Sat Jan 2 19:50:01 2021
    Hi,

    David Prévot <[email protected]> writes:

    Le 02/01/2021 à 11:30, Matthew Vernon a écrit :

    I have noticed some packages using the newer machine-readable
    copyright format, but not specifying any copyright for debian/*

    FWIW, I do that in most of the (simple) packages I’m maintaining: I’m fine using the same license as upstream, hence the “Files: *” catch
    the correct license also for debian/*.

    The debian/ directory in those packages may have very little
    copyrightable content anyway (not sure a trivial override in d/rules
    or data in d/u/metadata would eligible for example). The only
    creativity is often limited to the package description, that is
    directly copied (or adapted) from upstream, or a patch cherry-picked
    (or forwarded) upstream, where I’m not even the copyright owner
    (upstream is, so again, “Files: *” catches the correct information).

    Mmm. My presenting case is a system V init script, which isn't entirely
    trivial (though it is significantly boiler-plate); it seems a bit
    strange to record it as copyright upstream (who clearly didn't write
    it)...

    Regards,

    Matthew

    --
    "At least you know where you are with Microsoft."
    "True. I just wish I'd brought a paddle."
    http://www.debian.org

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  • From Christoph Biedl@21:1/5 to All on Tue Jan 5 01:10:01 2021
    John Scott wrote...

    On Saturday, January 2, 2021 10:30:56 AM EST Matthew Vernon wrote:
    I have noticed some packages using the newer machine-readable copyright format, but not specifying any copyright for debian/*
    That's not good practice. You should ask the package maintainer to include such information in debian/copyright. They would know the history best. Be sure to check for a wildcard though, like
    Files: *
    as that could apply to debian/.

    That was in the upgrading checklist for policy 3.9.3 (2012):

    | 12.5
    | ``debian/copyright`` is no longer required to list the Debian
    | maintainers involved in the creation of the package (although note
    | that the requirement to list copyright information is unchanged).

    Which made me believe it was not mandatory to have an extra stanza for
    debian/* and the things the maintainer(s) did there. But possibly that's
    just a misunderstanding.

    What does that mean about the copyright status of debian/* ? If I want
    to re-use a file therein in another package, can I do so?
    If the copyright file doesn't specify the license, and there are no comments in
    the files specifying the license, then the maintainer of that package really should fix that. That leaves the license ambiguous and you may not make any assumptions about your use of the file.

    About the license, the matching entry applies, so it's upstream's.
    Actually I prefer to use the same license as upstream, this just avoids
    trouble if someone considers a particular combination a problem.

    About copyright - in the very general I doubt there's much copyrightable
    stuff in debian/*. And if you really want to go pedantic, you could ask
    about patches (half-upstream, half-contributor [not necessarily
    maintainer]). Hopefully nobody will try to do the full discussion here.

    Christoph

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