On Sat, Mar 21, 2009 at 08:42:12PM -0700, Russ Allbery wrote: > Could you explain to me how the lack of those two things is a possible > DFSG problem? I assume that this is based on the first, but that seems > like quite a stretch to me. The same assurance, for what good there is in > it, could be drived from a statement in debian/copyright saying "I checked > every file in this package for DFSG licensing problems."
Okay, just to get it straight. I have made it clear that the copyright proposal makes no pronouncements about how it should be used. We are only discussing the orthogonal topic of how much information to include in this file, regardless of whatever format the package uses. I am not convinced either way, because my packages are probably relatively small compared to some. This has been an interesting discussion primarily because we have had the opportunity to shake out arguments from both sides. Having said that, I am thinking that fully documenting the license of each file provides a handy way to ensure that developers are thoroughly checking the package for licensing problems. It is not inconceivable that we could add a lintian check which does some fuzzy guesswork to see if it can spot any probably missed files based on parsing the debian/copyright file. It could also prove handy to the FTP masters who wish to check the quality of work. > Also, no, I definitely do not think that a possible DFSG problem is an RC > bug. I think that an *actual* DFSG problem is an RC bug. A possible DFSG > problem is only a possible RC bug. Surely this is obvious? Sure thing. My point was that not checking every file seems like sloppy work to me, for a distribution that places such an emphasis on licensing, and can lead to many problems. I have been the unfortunate victim of my own laziness in this regard, so at least I am speaking from guilty experience. Regardless of format, caveat a machine readable format being available to lintian for some rudimentary checks, a requirement for developers to document the licensing checks in debian/copyright could (not would) go a long way towards preventing DFSG problems in future uploads. Preventative measures seem a lot better than reactionary ones in this regard. Best, -- Noah Slater, http://tumbolia.org/nslater -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-policy-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
