Bug#1142696: marked as done (debian-policy [copyright-format]: Support 'Reference:' field in debian/copyright to avoid duplicating common-license texts)

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Your message dated Fri, 24 Jul 2026 12:23:36 +0200
with message-id <[email protected]>
and subject line Re: Bug#1142696: debian-policy : Support 'Reference:' fiel=
d in debian/copyright to avoid duplicating common-license texts
has caused the Debian Bug report #1142696,
regarding debian-policy [copyright-format]: Support 'Reference:' field in d=
ebian/copyright to avoid duplicating common-license texts
to be marked as done.

This means that you claim that the problem has been dealt with.
If this is not the case it is now your responsibility to reopen the
Bug report if necessary, and/or fix the problem forthwith.

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1142696: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=3D1142696
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From: Simon Josefsson <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: debian-policy [copyright-format]: Support 'Reference:' field in
 debian/copyright to avoid duplicating common-license texts
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Package: debian-policy
Version: 4.7.4.1
Severity: wishlist

Hi!

I noticed [1] use of a new field 'Reference' in debian/copyright that
appears to avoid the need to put a copy of the license declaration in
debian/copyright for licenses in common-licenses.

Is this something that the debian-policy copyright-format document
should cover?  I don't see it in the current document:

https://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/

We already don't put the entire license text of common-license in
debian/copyright since a long time.

It would be nice to avoid the need to cut'n'paste the license
declaration blurbs as well, which often tends to be outdated with old
postal addresses or http:// instead of https:// links and so on.

I expect discussion and lack of consensus for many years :)

/Simon

[1] https://forgejo.debian.net/golang/golang-github-go-git-go-git-v6/commit/9cf508b3b3c2b0d83812c83d05af6966fa09ce14

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From: Simon Josefsson <[email protected]>
To: Sean Whitton <[email protected]>
Cc: [email protected], [email protected]
Subject: Re: Bug#1142696: debian-policy : Support 'Reference:' field in
 debian/copyright to avoid duplicating common-license texts
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I'm closing 1142696 as an almost-duplicate of 904729, with a comment
that I found uses of a 'Reference:' field and not only the
'License-Grant:' field mentioned in 1142696, see:

https://forgejo.debian.net/golang/golang-github-go-git-go-git-v6/commit/9cf508b3b3c2b0d83812c83d05af6966fa09ce14

I think 'License-Grant:' sounds more descriptive, but if it is supposed
to contain a link to a full license text, it doesn't seem like a license
grant, so still somewhat confusing.

There is no progress on 904729 since 2018.  Has anyone asked the new
DFSG Team about this?  Or is it still ftp-master who can decide on legal
matters?

/Simon

Sean Whitton <[email protected]> writes:

> Simon Josefsson [24/Jul 10:33am +02] wrote:
>> I noticed [1] use of a new field 'Reference' in debian/copyright that
>> appears to avoid the need to put a copy of the license declaration in
>> debian/copyright for licenses in common-licenses.
>>
>> Is this something that the debian-policy copyright-format document
>> should cover?  I don't see it in the current document:
>>
>> https://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/
>>
>> We already don't put the entire license text of common-license in
>> debian/copyright since a long time.
>>
>> It would be nice to avoid the need to cut'n'paste the license
>> declaration blurbs as well, which often tends to be outdated with old
>> postal addresses or http:// instead of https:// links and so on.
>>
>> I expect discussion and lack of consensus for many years :)
>
> This is #904729.

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