Re: Please review new license summaries for Debian

Hello Jonas,
it seems I was not able to express my intentions the right way.
I do apologize for that.

Am 15.06.2026 16:58 schrieb Jonas Smedegaard:
> 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

That is the point. He has to say it in court because there is no "paper" 
giving
a clear statement about the Kernel license. But if the Kernel would use
SPDX license identifiers, which I am not sure if they might do, there 
would be
no need for Linus going to court or say something.

> We as distributors want to pass on messages from our upstreams about
> their demands regarding their licensing.

Here is the same. Using the SPDX license identifier (plus the related 
license
document) is enough message from upstream. This is clear, specific, 
human
and machine readable. No need for additional license comments or 
something
else.

> If your tool wants
> to treat SPDX as authoritatory over copyrigth holders or license
> designers

I see SPDX as a reporting standard.

If I find a GPL-3 full text document in a repo I can not be sure if is 
is
"*-only" or "-or-later". Only an additional comment somewhere else
could make it clear.

Regards,
Christian Buhtz