Re: Missing copyright clause of debian directory

Soren Stoutner <[email protected]> Thu, 27 Jun 2024 18:59:01 -0700
Newsgroups	gmane.linux.debian.devel.legal
Organization	Debian
Message-ID	<5394656.9PX84aSznt@soren-desktop>
On Wednesday, June 26, 2024 3:13:38 PM MST Nicholas D Steeves wrote:
> Soren Stoutner <[email protected]> writes:
> > As an additional followup, as the original debian/* files were licensed
> > GPLv2+, if you edit a file you can choose to make your contribution GPLv3+,
> > which would convert the entire file to GPLv3+.  If you end up editing all
> > of the files in debian/* at least once, you could convert the entire
> > copyright entry to GPLv3+.
> 
> Soren, would you please provide evidence for "the original debian/*
> files were licensed GPLv2+"?  It looks to me like:

This is based on the statement in the original email.

>I start working on adopting web-mode whose previous maintainer Thomas
>Koch[1] became MIA (see Bug#1019031).  When working on d/copyright, it
>turns out that there was only one copyright section that covered "Files:
>*" with upstream copyright owners but no separate section for "debian/*"
>(see also the d/copyright of the snapshot of version 17.0.2-1[2]).
>After checking the upstream copyright[3], I don't see the previous
>maintainer in the list of copyright owners, therefore I believe the
>current d/copyright is at mistake by covering the content in debian
>directory under "Files: *".

When debian/copyright contains a “Files: *” without a separate “Files: debian/*” section, it is 
making an explicit statement that the entire debian directory is licenses with the 
information listed in “Files: *”.  It is possible, even likely, that this was a typo, and doesn’t 
represent the intention of the author of the debian/* files, but it is what he wrote down.

Unless there is some other written indication that the author of the original debian/* files 
intended a different license, **we have to assume he meant what he wrote** when he 
drafted debian/copyright.

Soren

PS. To fully flush out this discussion, this is what was written in debian/copyright:

Files:     *
Copyright: 2011-2019 François-Xavier Bois
License:   GPL-2+

François-Xavier Bois is the upstream developer.  Thomas Koch <[email protected]> is the 
package maintainer who wrote debian/copyright.  If he had intended to license his 
contributions under the GPL-2+, I would have expected that he would have added his name 
to the copyright field (or, even better, created a separate debian/* section).  But, copyright 
law allows an author to transfer their copyright to another party.  So, imagine that Thomas 
Koch wanted to transfer his copyright for debian/* to François-Xavier Bois.  If that was what 
he wanted to do, then he could indicate that by putting the following in debian/copyright:

Files:     *
Copyright: 2011-2019 François-Xavier Bois
License:   GPL-2+

And because that is exactly what he did put in debian/copyright, we have to assume he 
meant what he wrote unless we have some other communication from him indicating 
otherwise.
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