Re: Please review new license summaries for Debian

Jonas Smedegaard <[email protected]> Mon, 15 Jun 2026 16:58:09 +0200

Newsgroups	gmane.linux.debian.devel.general
Message-ID	<[email protected]>

Quoting [email protected] (2026-06-15 16:52:06)
> Hello Peter,
> 
> thank you for the comment.
> 
> Am 15.06.2026 16:24 schrieb Peter Pentchev:
> > ...it would still sound a bit weird, especially as "the full text" will
> > tell the reader that they have the option to use it in "only" mode or
> > in "or later" mode :)
> 
> I totally agree. But this is a "bug" in GPL itself, not offering two
> different license texts but only one.
> 
> SPDX tries to solve that somehow.
> 
> Me, as maintainer of "spdx2debian", only can deal with what the
> standards are offering me.

When Linux Torvalds says linux is governed by GPL-2, then you can talk
to SPDX folks all you want, but what stands up in court is how Linux
chose to apply (a.k.a. grant) the full text of GPL-2 to the project
that he holds intellectual property over.

We as distributors want to pass on messages from our upstreams about
their demands regarding their licensing. The GNU project designed a
document (a.k.a. a "full text") which others apply to their projects,
and that is what Debian wants to track in debian/copyright.

If your tool wants to help with that, then great.  If your tool wants
to treat SPDX as authoritatory over copyrigth holders or license
designers, then it becomes pretty confusing that you try argue that
case towards Debian, I think.

 - Jonas

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