BSD-2-Clause with 'in this position and unchanged' addition? libarchive

Simon Josefsson <[email protected]> Wed, 03 Sep 2025 11:56:15 +0200

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

Hi

While working on Tarsnap's that embeds a copy of 'libarchive' I noticed
a discrepency in the BSD-2-Clause boiler plate of libarchive.

Compare https://sources.debian.org/src/libarchive/3.7.4-4/libarchive/archive.h

...
 * 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
 *    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
 * 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
...

with

https://sources.debian.org/src/libarchive/3.7.4-4/libarchive/archive_write_disk_private.h

...
 * 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
 *    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer
 *    in this position and unchanged.
 * 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
...

Note the added line with 'in this position and unchanged'.

I don't see this mentioned in debian/copyright which I assume is a
problem that ought to be fixed:

https://sources.debian.org/src/libarchive/3.7.4-4/debian/copyright

The license seems similar in spirit to the BSD-2-Clause-first-lines
license:

https://spdx.org/licenses/BSD-2-Clause-first-lines.html

The only classification of this variant that I can find is this one:

https://scancode-licensedb.aboutcode.org/bsd-unchanged

The FSF, OSI, and SPDX does not appear to recognize/discuss this
variant, or at least I cannot find it on their sites.

Questions:

1) Is the license DFSG-compliant?

2) Must the license text including that sentence be mentioned in
debian/copyright?

3) Is it correct to use a 'BSD-2-Clause' keyword that expanded to a pure
BSD-2-Clause license text (i.e., without the sentence), or must a new
stanza (e.g., 'BSD-2-Clause-unchanged') be used that expands to the
appropriate blurb include the missing sentence?

I'm guessing Yes, Yes, and BSD-2-Clause-unchanged, but that would just
be my opinion.

/Simon

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