Re: Missing copyright clause of debian directory

Soren Stoutner <[email protected]> Fri, 12 Apr 2024 12:40:55 -0700
Newsgroups	gmane.linux.debian.devel.legal
Organization	Debian
Message-ID	<2747772.0Ridh7ialD@soren-desktop>
As an additional comment, I currently maintain Electrum.  Upstream is licensed Expat.  
Previous maintainers licensed their debian/* contributions GPLv3+.  When I took over the 
package, I started working closely with upstream and wanted to contribute patches and 
other files, like AppSream metainfo to them.

To do this, I wanted all of my new contributions to debian/* to be licensed under Expat 
when I was the sole author of the file, and dual licensed under GPLv3+ and Expat when I 
was editing an existing file.  I indicated that in the following way:

Files:     debian/*
Copyright: 2013-2015 Vasudev Kamath <[email protected]>
           2013 Gregor Herrmann <[email protected]>
           2013-2021 Tristan Seligmann <[email protected]>
           2019-2020 Laurent Bigonville <[email protected]>
           2022 Bastian Germann <[email protected]>
           2022-2024 Soren Stoutner <[email protected]>
License:   GPL-3+
Comment:
 The following copyright holders additionally license their
 contributions to debian/* under the Expat license so that
 if all other listed contributors agree it can be relicensed
 under Expat, which is the license used by upstream and makes it
 easier for contributions to be upstreamed when appropriate:
 Soren Stoutner, Bastian Germann.

Files:     debian/electrum.1
Copyright: 2023-2024 Soren Stoutner <[email protected]>
License:   Expat

Files:     debian/patches/*
Copyright: 2022-2024 Soren Stoutner <[email protected]>
License:   Expat

Files:     debian/patches/Improve-message-about-PyQt5.patch
Copyright: 2020 Tristan Seligmann <[email protected]>
License:   GPL-3+

https://sources.debian.org/src/electrum/4.5.4%2Bdfsg-1/debian/copyright/[1]

On Friday, April 12, 2024 12:10:43 PM MST Richard Laager wrote:
> I've only looked at this situation for a total of five minutes prior to 
> writing this email, so take this with a grain of salt. But to help you 
> make forward progress...
> 
> Upstream seems to use GPL-3+ (not GPL-3). For example:
> https://github.com/fxbois/web-mode/blob/a9d21841224da3295f2dd0a90022f5e435e480
> 46/web-mode.el#L13
 
> The existing copyright says GPL-2+ (not GPL-2).
> 
> On 2024-04-10 23:05, Xiyue Deng wrote:
> 
> > 1. whether I can add the new copyright section to cover debian/*, and
> 
> 
> I think it is pretty typical to have a debian/* section. And if the 
> licenses differ (see below), then you would _have_ to have separate 
> sections.
>
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