Re: Developer's Certificate of Origin

Simon Josefsson <[email protected]> Wed, 27 Nov 2024 14:40:11 +0100

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

Soren Stoutner <[email protected]> writes:

> On Wednesday, November 27, 2024 4:48:30 AM MST Ulrich Müller wrote:
>> >>>>> On Wed, 27 Nov 2024, Soren Stoutner wrote:
>> > On Wednesday, November 27, 2024 2:48:51 AM MST Simon Josefsson wrote:
>> >> I don't follow.  Do you believe the DCO is a license text?
>> > 
>> > Yes.  There is no question that the DCO is a license.  It says right
>> > in the text it is a license.
>> 
>> So if someone wants to include any non-free file in a package, they can
>> just claim in its header that it is a license, and it will be excepted
>> from the DFSG? That seems like a strange concept.
>
> I can’t imagine anyone making that claim, and no one has in this thread.
>
> However, if a project includes their Contributor License Agreement in their 
> source code (the DSO in this case), doing so does not pose any DFSG problems 
> (and, indeed, is a good idea, because it strengthens the chain of custody of 
> the open-source license presented by the project to the end users).

I don't think so -- the fact that a DCO is included does not guarantee
that contributions were made under that DCO.  It is just an auxilliary
text file with a non-free license, referred to by a README.  It may be
that some contributions were given under the DCO, but there is no
guarantee, and this doesn't modify anything about the rights I'm given
as a user from the outgoing license.

Generally, I can't align your thinking with the decisions about the FDL:

https://www.debian.org/vote/2006/vote_001

I made the example earlier of a manual that has an FDL Invariant Section
that includes a copy of the GPL.  I believe Debian consider that as
non-free, since a manual shouldn't contain things that cannot be
modified, but if I'm understanding you correctly you argue that would be
acceptable.

/Simon

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