Re: is copyleft packaging bad for Debian?

Jonas Smedegaard <[email protected]> Mon, 02 Feb 2026 14:24:40 +0100

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

Quoting Gerardo Ballabio (2026-02-02 13:04:49)
> If the packaging and the upstream source have different licenses, I
> wonder what is the license on the resulting package -- both source and
> binary?

Some projects in Debian already without problems involve multiple
licenses, e.g. one license for code to be compiled together, maybe
another for components linkable with independently compiled code, and
maybe a third for some documentation.

I am not talking about is copyleft-licensing something which is patched
into upstream-licensed code and therefore causing Debian to
redistribute upstream works relicensed compared to their own licensing.
I am only talking about copyleft-licensing non-upstream-affecting
packaging parts.

I am also not talking about things not copyright-protectable: We all
claim copyright for packaging and license that copyright-claimed stuff,
so any discussion of whether those copyright claims are bogus and what
problems such bogus claims might cause, is orthogonal to the choice of
license.

My question is also not whether *you* should copyleft-license *your*
contributions to Debian. I am only asking if you would prefer that
copyleft-licensed contributions was unacceptable in Debian.

Kind regards,

 - Jonas

-- 
 * Jonas Smedegaard - idealist & Internet-arkitekt
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