Hello Michael, Michael Stehmann dijo [Wed, May 20, 2026 at 11:28:21AM +0200]:
Hello,my question is: How should Debian treats not human generated files. Starting point: An .orig.tar.[g|x]z contains files, which are not human generated.(I know that there is an discussion on debian-vote about a General Resolution "Allow AI-Assisted Contributions". But the content of files might also generated by (non AI) application (example: tools for autoconfiguration).)My assumption is that content generated by machine is not human artwork and not copyrightable.(...)Should Debian allow a pseudo copyright remark like "not copyrightable" to clarify the legal situation of the files mentioned above?
Just thinking out loud here... Many files are not the _direct_ output of human actions, but the result of some transforms over it. For example, if I create a set of icons, I am not directly writing the SVG or PNG renditions. But they are directly created from my actions. It is not even an exactly repeatable action... I could show how I built a given SVG, but the result would very likely not be bit-identical. Still, we will accept SVG as the _closest we can get_ to a source document, and as a preferred form of modification. Autoconf and such files would be something similar: Across the many build systems and languages, we will find an existing, human-generated manifest. This manifest is processed, together with the running system information (which we now care to document enough for it to be reproducible!), and a “verbosified” autoconf / cargo / Makefile.PL / composer / whatever non-human-generated file is generated. So, given a (simpler) human-generated manifest, together with build environment information, the autoconf system works as some sort of compiler. And we often ship this compiled file for convenience — but (in principle, at least) we could just regenerate it from “real” sources. Yes, I'm oversimplifying many bits, and I know there are some procedural details that probably make my point not always valid. But would you find this a better point to work from? Greetings, — Gunnar.
signature.asc
Description: PGP signature
