Is Packaging Copyrightable (was: is copyleft packaging bad for Debian?)

Soren Stoutner <[email protected]> Mon, 02 Feb 2026 12:04:57 -0700

Newsgroups	gmane.linux.debian.devel.project
Organization	Debian
Message-ID	<3544978.irdbgypaU6@soren-desktop>

On Monday, February 2, 2026 11:43:34 AM Mountain Standard Time Jonas 
Smedegaard wrote:
> Related to that, I now (since yesterday) add the following section to
> the debian/copyright file of packages that I maintain:
> 
> Files: debian/patches/*
> Copyright: None
> License: None
> Comment:
>  Patches are generally assumed not copyright-protected by default.
>  Please list any patch with copyright claims separately.

As I just wrote in a separate email, I disagree strongly with the idea that 
Debian packaging is not copyrightable.  I do not think that any packages with 
the above debian/copyright entry should be allowed in Debian.

-- 
Soren Stoutner
[email protected]

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