On Wednesday, June 26, 2024 3:13:38 PM MST Nicholas D Steeves wrote: > Soren Stoutner <so...@debian.org> writes: > > As an additional followup, as the original debian/* files were licensed > > GPLv2+, if you edit a file you can choose to make your contribution GPLv3+, > > which would convert the entire file to GPLv3+. If you end up editing all > > of the files in debian/* at least once, you could convert the entire > > copyright entry to GPLv3+. > > Soren, would you please provide evidence for "the original debian/* > files were licensed GPLv2+"? It looks to me like:
This is based on the statement in the original email. >I start working on adopting web-mode whose previous maintainer Thomas >Koch[1] became MIA (see Bug#1019031). When working on d/copyright, it >turns out that there was only one copyright section that covered "Files: >*" with upstream copyright owners but no separate section for "debian/*" >(see also the d/copyright of the snapshot of version 17.0.2-1[2]). >After checking the upstream copyright[3], I don't see the previous >maintainer in the list of copyright owners, therefore I believe the >current d/copyright is at mistake by covering the content in debian >directory under "Files: *". When debian/copyright contains a “Files: *” without a separate “Files: debian/*” section, it is making an explicit statement that the entire debian directory is licenses with the information listed in “Files: *”. It is possible, even likely, that this was a typo, and doesn’t represent the intention of the author of the debian/* files, but it is what he wrote down. Unless there is some other written indication that the author of the original debian/* files intended a different license, **we have to assume he meant what he wrote** when he drafted debian/copyright. Soren PS. To fully flush out this discussion, this is what was written in debian/copyright: Files: * Copyright: 2011-2019 François-Xavier Bois License: GPL-2+ François-Xavier Bois is the upstream developer. Thomas Koch <tho...@koch.ro> is the package maintainer who wrote debian/copyright. If he had intended to license his contributions under the GPL-2+, I would have expected that he would have added his name to the copyright field (or, even better, created a separate debian/* section). But, copyright law allows an author to transfer their copyright to another party. So, imagine that Thomas Koch wanted to transfer his copyright for debian/* to François-Xavier Bois. If that was what he wanted to do, then he could indicate that by putting the following in debian/copyright: Files: * Copyright: 2011-2019 François-Xavier Bois License: GPL-2+ And because that is exactly what he did put in debian/copyright, we have to assume he meant what he wrote unless we have some other communication from him indicating otherwise.
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