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8 <article class="specification" lang="en" id="copyright-format-1.0">
11 Machine-readable <filename>debian/copyright</filename> file
13 <subtitle>Version 1.0</subtitle>
16 Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
17 are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
18 notice and this notice are preserved.
23 Establishes a standard, machine-readable format for
24 <filename>debian/copyright</filename> files within Debian packages
25 to facilitate automated checking and reporting of licenses for
26 packages and sets of packages. This specification was originally
28 <ulink url="http://dep.debian.net/deps/dep5/">DEP-5</ulink>.
33 <section id="introduction">
34 <title>Introduction</title>
36 This document describes a standard, machine-interpretable format for
37 the <filename>debian/copyright</filename> file. This file is one of
38 the most important files in Debian packaging, but, prior to this
39 specification, no standard format was defined for it and its
40 contents varied tremendously across packages. This made it
41 difficult to automatically extract licensing information.
44 Use of this specification is optional.
47 Nothing in this proposal supersedes or modifies any of the requirements
48 specified in Debian Policy regarding the appropriate detail or
49 granularity to use when documenting copyright and license status in
50 <filename>debian/copyright</filename>.
54 <section id="rationale">
55 <title>Rationale</title>
57 The diversity of free software licenses means that Debian needs to care
58 not only about the freeness of a given work, but also its license's
59 compatibility with the other parts of Debian it uses.
62 The arrival of the GPL version 3, its incompatibility with version 2, and
63 our inability to spot the software where the incompatibility might be
64 problematic is one prominent occurrence of this limitation.
67 There are earlier precedents, also. One is the GPL/OpenSSL
68 incompatibility. Apart from grepping
69 <filename>debian/copyright</filename>, which is prone to numerous false
70 positives (packaging under the GPL but software under another license) or
71 negatives (GPL software but with an <quote>OpenSSL special
72 exception</quote> dual licensing form), there is no reliable way to know
73 which software in Debian might be problematic.
76 And there is more to come. There are issues with shipping GPLv2-only
77 software with a CDDL operating system such as Nexenta. The GPL version 3
78 solves this issue, but not all GPL software can switch to it and we have
79 no way to know how much of Debian should be stripped from such a system.
82 Even where licenses are DFSG-free and mutually compatible, users may
83 wish a way to identify software under certain licenses (for example,
84 if they have a problem with the Affero GPL).
88 <section id="acknowledgements">
89 <title>Acknowledgements</title>
91 Many people have worked on this specification over the years. The
92 following alphabetical list is incomplete; please suggest missing people:
104 <section id="file-syntax">
105 <title>File syntax</title>
107 The <filename>debian/copyright</filename> file must be
108 machine-interpretable, yet human-readable, while communicating all
109 mandated upstream information, copyright notices and licensing details.
112 The syntax of the file is the same as for other Debian control files, as
113 specified in the Debian Policy Manual. See its <ulink
114 url="http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-controlfields#s-controlsyntax">section
115 5.1</ulink> for details. Extra fields can be added to any paragraph. No
116 prefixing is necessary or desired, but please avoid names similar to
117 standard ones so that mistakes are easier to catch. Future versions of
118 the <filename>debian/copyright</filename> specification will attempt to
119 avoid conflicting specifications for widely used extra fields.
122 The file consists of two or more paragraphs. At minimum, the file
123 must include one <link linkend="header-paragraph">header
124 paragraph</link> and one <link linkend="files-paragraph">Files
128 There are four types of fields. The definition for each field in this
129 document indicates which type of value it takes.
132 <section id="single-line">
133 <title>Single-line values</title>
135 The entire value of a single-line field must be on a single line.
136 For example, the <varname>Format</varname> field has a single-line
137 value specifying the version of the machine-readable format that
142 <section id="white-space-lists">
143 <title>Whitespace-separated lists</title>
145 Field values defined as whitespace-separated lists may be on one
146 line or many. Values in the list are separated by one or more
147 whitespace characters (space, tab, or newline). For example, the
148 <varname>Files</varname> field contains a whitespace-separated
149 list of filename patterns.
153 <section id="line-based-lists">
154 <title>Line-based lists</title>
156 Line-based lists have one value per line. For example, the
157 <varname>Upstream-Contact</varname> field contains a line-based
158 list of contact addresses.
162 <section id="formatted-text">
163 <title>Formatted text</title>
165 Formatted text fields use the same rules as the long description
166 in a package's <varname>Description</varname> field in Debian
167 control files. In some but not all cases, the first line may have
168 special meaning as a synopsis, similar to how the
169 <varname>Description</varname> field uses it for the short
170 description. See Debian Policy's section 5.6.13, <ulink
171 url="http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-controlfields#s-f-Description"><quote>Description</quote></ulink>,
172 for details. For example, <varname>Disclaimer</varname> is a
173 formatted text field that has no special first line, and
174 <varname>License</varname> is a formatted text field where the
175 first line indicates the short name or names of the licenses.
180 <section id="paragraphs">
181 <title>Paragraphs</title>
183 There are three kinds of paragraphs. The first paragraph in the file
184 is called the <link linkend="header-paragraph">header paragraph</link>.
185 Every other paragraph is either a <link
186 linkend="files-paragraph">Files paragraph</link> or a <link
187 linkend="stand-alone-license-paragraph">stand-alone License
188 paragraph</link>. This is similar to source and binary package
189 paragraphs in <filename>debian/control</filename> files.
192 <section id="header-paragraph">
193 <title>Header paragraph (once)</title>
195 The following fields may be present in a header paragraph.
200 <link linkend="format-field">Format</link>: required.
205 <link linkend="upstream-name-field">Upstream-Name</link>:
212 linkend="upstream-contact-field">Upstream-Contact</link>:
218 <link linkend="source-field">Source</link>: optional.
223 <link linkend="disclaimer-field">Disclaimer</link>:
229 <link linkend="comment-field">Comment</link>: optional.
234 <link linkend="license-field">License</link>: optional.
239 <link linkend="copyright-field">Copyright</link>: optional.
244 The <varname>Copyright</varname> and <varname>License</varname> fields
245 in the <emphasis>header paragraph</emphasis> may complement but do not
246 replace the <emphasis>Files paragraphs</emphasis>. They can be used
247 to summarise the copyright notices or redistribution terms for the
248 whole package, such as when a work combines a permissive and a
249 copyleft license and the combination requires some clarification, or
250 to document a <emphasis>compilation copyright</emphasis> and license.
251 It is possible to use only <varname>License</varname> in the header
252 paragraph, but <varname>Copyright</varname> alone makes no sense.
255 <section id="example-header-paragraph">
256 <title>Example header paragraph</title>
257 <programlisting>Format: http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/
258 Upstream-Name: SOFTware
259 Upstream-Contact: John Doe <john.doe@example.com>
260 Source: http://www.example.com/software/project</programlisting>
264 <section id="files-paragraph">
265 <title>Files paragraph (repeatable)</title>
267 The declaration of copyright and license for files may consist of
268 one or more paragraphs. In the simplest case, a single paragraph
269 with <literal>Files: *</literal> can be used to state the license
270 and copyright for the whole package. Only the license and
271 copyright information required by the Debian archive is required
275 The following fields may be present in a Files paragraph.
281 <link linkend="files-field">Files</link>: required.
286 <link linkend="copyright-field">Copyright</link>: required.
291 <link linkend="license-field">License</link>: required.
296 <link linkend="comment-field">Comment</link>: optional.
301 <section id="example-files-paragraph">
302 <title>Example files paragraphs</title>
303 <programlisting>Files: *
304 Copyright: 1975-2010 Ulla Upstream
308 Copyright: 2010 Daniela Debianizer
311 Files: debian/patches/fancy-feature
312 Copyright: 2010 Daniela Debianizer
316 Copyright: 2010 Manuela Manpager
317 License: GPL-2+</programlisting>
319 In this example, all files are copyright by the upstream and licensed
320 under the GPL, version 2 or later, with three exceptions. All the
321 Debian packaging files are copyright by the packager, and further one
322 specific file providing a new feature is licensed differently.
323 Finally, there are some manual pages added to the package, written by
327 Since the license of the manual pages is the same as the other
328 files in the package, the last paragraph above could instead be
329 combined with the first paragraph, listing both copyright
330 statements in one <varname>Copyright</varname> field. Whether
331 to combine paragraphs with the same license is left to the
332 discretion of the author of the
333 <filename>debian/copyright</filename> file.
338 <section id="stand-alone-license-paragraph">
339 <title>Stand-alone License Paragraph (optional, repeatable)</title>
341 Stand-alone <varname>License</varname> paragraphs can be used to
342 provide the full license text for a given license once, instead of
343 repeating it in each <varname>Files</varname> paragraph that refers to
344 it. The first line of the <varname>License</varname> field must be a
345 single license short name or a short name followed by a license
349 The following fields may be present in a stand-alone License
356 <link linkend="license-field">License</link>: required.
361 <link linkend="comment-field">Comment</link>: optional.
366 <title>tri-licensed files</title>
367 <programlisting>Files: src/js/editline/*
368 Copyright: 1993, John Doe
370 License: MPL-1.1 or GPL-2 or LGPL-2.1
379 [LICENSE TEXT]</programlisting>
383 <title>recurrent license</title>
384 <programlisting>Files: src/js/editline/*
385 Copyright: 1993, John Doe
389 Files: src/js/fdlibm/*
390 Copyright: 1993, J-Random Corporation
394 [LICENSE TEXT]</programlisting>
399 <section id="fields">
400 <title>Fields</title>
402 The following fields are defined for use in
403 <filename>debian/copyright</filename>.
406 <section id="format-field">
407 <title><varname>Format</varname></title>
409 Single-line: URI of the format specification. The field that
410 should be used for the current version of this document is:
411 <programlisting>Format: http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/</programlisting>
415 <section id="upstream-name-field">
416 <title><varname>Upstream-Name</varname></title>
418 Single-line: the name upstream uses for the software
422 <section id="upstream-contact-field">
423 <title><varname>Upstream-Contact</varname></title>
425 Line-based list: the preferred address(es) to reach the upstream
426 project. May be free-form text, but by convention will usually be
427 written as a list of RFC5322 addresses or URIs.
431 <section id="source-field">
432 <title><varname>Source</varname></title>
434 Formatted text, no synopsis: an explanation of where the upstream
435 source came from. Typically this would be a URL, but it might be a
436 free-form explanation. The Debian Policy section <ulink
437 url="http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-docs#s-copyrightfile">12.5</ulink>
438 requires this information unless there are no upstream sources,
439 which is mainly the case for native Debian packages. If the
440 upstream source has been modified to remove non-free parts, that
441 should be explained in this field.
445 <section id="disclaimer-field">
446 <title><varname>Disclaimer</varname></title>
448 Formatted text, no synopsis: this field is used for non-free or
449 contrib packages to say that they are not part of Debian and to
450 explain why (see Debian Policy section <ulink
451 url="http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-docs#s-copyrightfile">12.5</ulink>).
455 <section id="comment-field">
456 <title><varname>Comment</varname></title>
458 Formatted text, no synopsis: this field can provide additional
459 information. For example, it might quote an e-mail from upstream
460 justifying why the license is acceptable to the main archive, or an
461 explanation of how this version of the package has been forked from
462 a version known to be DFSG-free, even though the current upstream
467 <section id="license-field">
468 <title><varname>License</varname></title>
470 Formatted text, with synopsis. In the header paragraph, this field
471 gives the license information for the package as a whole, which may
472 be different or simplified from a combination of all the per-file
473 license information. In a Files paragraph, this field gives the
474 licensing terms for the files listed in the <varname>Files</varname>
475 field for this paragraph. In a stand-alone License paragraph, it
476 gives the licensing terms for those paragraphs which reference it.
479 First line: an abbreviated name for the license, or expression
480 giving alternatives (see the <link linkend="license-short-name">Short
481 name</link> section for a list of standard abbreviations). If
482 there are licenses present in the package without a standard short
483 name, an arbitrary short name may be assigned for these licenses.
484 These arbitrary names are only guaranteed to be unique within a
485 single copyright file.
488 If there are no remaining lines, then all of the short names
489 or short names followed by license exceptions making up the
490 first line must be described in <link
491 linkend="stand-alone-license-paragraph">stand-alone License
492 paragraphs</link>. Otherwise, this field should either
493 include the full text of the license(s) or include a pointer to the
494 license file under <filename>/usr/share/common-licenses</filename>.
495 This field should include all text needed in order to fulfill both
496 Debian Policy's requirement for including a copy of the software's
497 distribution license (<ulink
498 url="http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-docs#s-copyrightfile">12.5</ulink>),
499 and any license requirements to include warranty disclaimers or
500 other notices with the binary package.
504 <section id="copyright-field">
505 <title><varname>Copyright</varname></title>
507 Formatted text, no synopsis: one or more free-form copyright
508 statements. Any formatting is permitted; see the examples below
509 for some ideas for how to structure the field to make it easier to
510 read. In the header paragraph, this field gives the copyright
511 information for the package as a whole, which may be different or
512 simplified from a combination of all the per-file copyright
513 information. In the Files paragraphs, it gives the copyright
514 information that applies to the files matched by the
515 <varname>Files</varname> pattern. If a work has no copyright holder
516 (i.e., it is in the public domain), that information should be
520 The <varname>Copyright</varname> field collects all relevant
521 copyright notices for the files of this paragraph. Not all
522 copyright notices may apply to every individual file, and years of
523 publication for one copyright holder may be gathered together. For
524 example, if file A has:
525 <programlisting>Copyright 2008 John Smith
526 Copyright 2009 Angela Watts</programlisting>
528 <programlisting>Copyright 2010 Angela Watts</programlisting>
529 a single paragraph may still be used for both files. The
530 <varname>Copyright</varname> field for that paragraph would
532 <programlisting>Copyright 2008 John Smith
533 Copyright 2009, 2010 Angela Watts</programlisting>
536 The <varname>Copyright</varname> field may contain the original
537 copyright statement copied exactly (including the word
538 <quote>Copyright</quote>), or it may shorten the text or merge it
539 with other copyright statements as described above, as long as it
540 does not sacrifice information. Examples in this specification use
545 <section id="files-field">
546 <title><varname>Files</varname></title>
548 Whitespace-separated list: list of patterns indicating files covered
549 by the license and copyright specified in this paragraph.
552 Filename patterns in the <varname>Files</varname> field are
553 specified using a simplified shell glob syntax. Patterns are
554 separated by whitespace.
558 Only the wildcards <literal>*</literal> and <literal>?</literal>
559 apply; the former matches any number of characters (including
560 none), the latter a single character. Both match slashs
561 (<literal>/</literal>) and leading dots, unlike shell globs.
562 The pattern <literal>*.in</literal> therefore matches any
563 file whose name ends in <literal>.in</literal> anywhere in
564 the source tree, not just at the top level.
569 Patterns match pathnames that start at the root of the source
570 tree. Thus, <quote><filename>Makefile.in</filename></quote>
571 matches only the file at the root of the tree, but
572 <quote><filename>*/Makefile.in</filename></quote> matches at
578 The backslash (<literal>\</literal>) is used to remove the
579 magic from the next character; see table below.
587 <entry>Escape sequence</entry>
588 <entry>Matches</entry>
593 <entry><literal>\*</literal></entry>
594 <entry>star (asterisk)</entry>
597 <entry><literal>\?</literal></entry>
598 <entry>question mark</entry>
601 <entry><literal>\\</literal></entry>
602 <entry>backslash</entry>
607 Any other character following a backslash is an error.
610 Multiple <varname>Files</varname> paragraphs are allowed. The last
611 paragraph that matches a particular file applies to it. More
612 general paragraphs should therefore be given first, followed by
613 more specific overrides.
616 Exclusions are only supported by adding <varname>Files</varname>
617 paragraphs to override the previous match.
622 <section id="license-specification">
623 <title>License specification</title>
625 <section id="license-short-name">
626 <title>Short name</title>
628 Much of the value of a machine-parseable copyright file lies in being
629 able to correlate the licenses of multiple pieces of software. To that
630 end, this spec defines standard short names for a number of commonly
631 used licenses, which can be used in the first line of a
632 <varname>License</varname> field.
635 These short names have the specified meanings across all uses of this
636 file format, and <emphasis>must not</emphasis> be used to refer to any
637 other licenses. Parsers may thus rely on these short names referring
638 to the same licenses wherever they occur, without needing to parse or
639 compare the full license text.
642 From time to time, licenses may be added to or removed from the list of
643 standard short names. Such changes in the list of short names will
644 always be accompanied by changes to the version of this standard
645 and to the recommended
646 <varname>Format</varname> value. Implementers who are parsing copyright
647 files should take care not to assume anything about the meaning of
648 license short names for unknown <varname>Format</varname> versions.
651 Use of a standard short name does not override the Debian Policy
652 requirement to include the full license text in
653 <filename>debian/copyright</filename>, nor any requirements in the
654 license of the work regarding reproduction of legal notices. This
655 information must still be included in the <varname>License</varname>
656 field, either in a stand-alone License paragraph or in the relevant
660 For licenses that have multiple versions in use, the short name is
661 formed from the general short name of the license family, followed
662 by a dash and the version number. If the version number is
663 omitted, the lowest version number is implied. When the license
664 grant permits using the terms of any later version of that
665 license, add a plus sign to the end of the short name. For
666 example, the short name <literal>GPL</literal> refers to the GPL
667 version 1 and is equivalent to <literal>GPL-1</literal>, although
668 the latter is clearer and therefore preferred. If the package may
669 be distributed under the GPL version 1 or any later version, use a
670 short name of <literal>GPL-1+</literal>.
673 For <link linkend="spdx">SPDX</link> compatibility, versions with
674 trailing <emphasis>dot-zeroes</emphasis> are considered to be
675 equivalent to versions without (e.g., <quote>2.0.0</quote> is
676 considered equal to <quote>2.0</quote> and <quote>2</quote>).
679 Currently, the full text of the licenses is only available in the
680 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses">SPDX Open Source License
687 <entry>Keyword</entry>
688 <entry>Meaning</entry>
693 <entry>public-domain</entry>
695 No license required for any purpose; the work is not subject to
696 copyright in any jurisdiction.
705 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/Apache-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
706 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/Apache-2.0">2.0</ulink>.
715 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/Artistic-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
716 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/Artistic-2.0">2.0</ulink>.
724 Berkeley software distribution license,
725 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/BSD-2-Clause">2-clause
734 Berkeley software distribution license,
735 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/BSD-3-Clause">3-clause
744 Berkeley software distribution license,
745 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/BSD-4-Clause">4-clause
754 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/ISC">Internet Software
755 Consortium</ulink>, sometimes also known as the OpenBSD License.
763 Creative Commons Attribution license
764 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
765 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
766 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-2.5">2.5</ulink>,
767 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-3.0">3.0</ulink>.
775 Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike license
776 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-SA-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
777 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-SA-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
778 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-SA-2.5">2.5</ulink>,
779 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-SA-3.0">3.0</ulink>.
787 Creative Commons Attribution No Derivatives license
788 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-ND-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
789 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-ND-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
790 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-ND-2.5">2.5</ulink>,
791 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-ND-3.0">3.0</ulink>.
799 Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial license
800 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
801 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
802 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-2.5">2.5</ulink>,
803 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-3.0">3.0</ulink>.
811 Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license
812 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-SA-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
813 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-SA-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
814 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-SA-2.5">2.5</ulink>,
815 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-SA-3.0">3.0</ulink>.
823 Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives
825 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-ND-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
826 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-ND-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
827 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-ND-2.5">2.5</ulink>,
828 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-ND-3.0">3.0</ulink>.
836 Creative Commons Zero
837 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC0-1.0">1.0 Universal</ulink>.
838 Omit <quote>Universal</quote> from the license version when
839 forming the short name.
847 Common Development and Distribution License
848 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CDDL-1.0">1.0</ulink>.
856 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CPL-1.0">IBM Common Public
865 The Eiffel Forum License
866 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/EFL-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
867 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/EFL-2.0">2.0</ulink>.
875 The <ulink url="http://www.jclark.com/xml/copying.txt">Expat</ulink>
884 GNU General Public License
885 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/GPL-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
886 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/GPL-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
887 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/GPL-3.0">3.0</ulink>.
895 GNU Lesser General Public License
896 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/LGPL-2.1">2.1</ulink>,
897 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/LGPL-3.0">3.0</ulink>, or
898 GNU Library General Public License
899 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/LGPL-2.0">2.0</ulink>.
907 GNU Free Documentation License 1.0,
908 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/GFDL-1.1">1.1</ulink>,
909 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/GFDL-1.2">1.2</ulink>, or
910 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/GFDL-1.3">1.3</ulink>.
911 Use GFDL-NIV instead if there are no Front-Cover or
912 Back-Cover Texts or Invariant Sections.
920 GNU Free Documentation License, with no Front-Cover or
921 Back-Cover Texts or Invariant Sections. Use the same
922 version numbers as GFDL.
930 <ulink url="http://www.latex-project.org/lppl/">LaTeX Project
931 Public License</ulink>
932 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/LPPL-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
933 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/LPPL-1.1">1.1</ulink>,
934 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/LPPL-1.2">1.2</ulink>,
935 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/LPPL-1.3c">1.3c</ulink>.
943 Mozilla Public License
944 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/MPL-1.1">1.1</ulink>.
952 <ulink url="http://dev.perl.org/licenses/">Perl</ulink> license
953 (use <quote><literal>GPL-1+ or Artistic-1</literal></quote>
963 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/Python-2.0">2.0</ulink>.
965 <!-- See https://fossbazaar.org/pipermail/spdx-legal/2011-February/000010.html -->
972 Q Public License <ulink
973 url="http://spdx.org/licenses/QPL-1.0">1.0</ulink>.
981 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/W3C">W3C Software
982 License</ulink> For more information, consult the
984 url="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/IPR-FAQ-20000620">W3C
985 Intellectual Rights FAQ</ulink>.
993 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/Zlib">
994 zlib/libpng license</ulink>.
1002 Zope Public License 1.0,
1003 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/ZPL-1.1">1.1</ulink>,
1004 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/ZPL-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
1005 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/ZPL-2.1">2.1</ulink>.
1013 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_License#Various_versions">many
1014 versions of the MIT license</ulink>. Please use Expat instead, when it
1018 An exception or clarification to a license is signalled in plain text,
1019 by appending <literal>with
1020 <varname><replaceable>keywords</replaceable></varname>
1021 exception</literal> to the short name. This document provides a list
1022 of keywords that must be used when referring to the most frequent
1023 exceptions. When exceptions other than these are in effect that
1024 modify a common license by granting additional permissions, you may
1025 use an arbitrary keyword not taken from the below list of keywords.
1026 When a license differs from a common license because of added
1027 restrictions rather than because of added permissions, a distinct
1028 short name should be used instead of <literal>with
1029 <varname><replaceable>keywords</replaceable></varname>
1030 exception</literal>.
1033 Only one exception may be specified for each license within a given
1034 license specification. If more than one exception applies to a single
1035 license, an arbitrary short name indicating that combination of
1036 multiple exceptions must be used instead.
1039 The GPL <literal>Font</literal> exception refers to the text added to
1040 the license notice of each file as specified at <ulink
1041 url="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq#FontException">How does the
1042 GPL apply to fonts</ulink>. The precise text corresponding to this
1044 <programlisting>As a special exception, if you create a document which uses this font,
1045 and embed this font or unaltered portions of this font into the
1046 document, this font does not by itself cause the resulting document to
1047 be covered by the GNU General Public License. This exception does not
1048 however invalidate any other reasons why the document might be covered
1049 by the GNU General Public License. If you modify this font, you may
1050 extend this exception to your version of the font, but you are not
1051 obligated to do so. If you do not wish to do so, delete this exception
1052 statement from your version.</programlisting>
1055 The GPL <literal>OpenSSL</literal> exception gives permission to
1056 link GPL-licensed code with the OpenSSL library, which contains
1057 GPL-incompatible clauses. For more information, see <ulink
1058 url="http://www.gnome.org/~markmc/openssl-and-the-gpl">The OpenSSL
1059 License and The GPL</ulink> by Mark McLoughlin and the message
1061 url="http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2004/05/msg00595.html">middleman
1062 software license conflicts with OpenSSL</ulink> by Mark McLoughlin
1063 on the <emphasis>debian-legal</emphasis> mailing list. The text
1064 corresponding to this exception is:
1065 <programlisting>In addition, as a special exception, the copyright holders give
1066 permission to link the code of portions of this program with the
1067 OpenSSL library under certain conditions as described in each
1068 individual source file, and distribute linked combinations including
1071 You must obey the GNU General Public License in all respects for all
1072 of the code used other than OpenSSL. If you modify file(s) with this
1073 exception, you may extend this exception to your version of the
1074 file(s), but you are not obligated to do so. If you do not wish to do
1075 so, delete this exception statement from your version. If you delete
1076 this exception statement from all source files in the program, then
1077 also delete it here.</programlisting>
1080 <section id="public-domain">
1081 <title>Public domain</title>
1083 The <varname>License</varname> short name
1084 <literal>public-domain</literal> does not refer to a set of license
1085 terms. There are some works which are not subject to copyright in
1086 any jurisdiction and therefore no license is required for any
1087 purpose covered by copyright law. This short name is an explicit
1088 declaration that the associated files are <quote>in the public
1092 Widespread misunderstanding about copyright in general, and the
1093 public domain in particular, results in the common assertion that a
1094 work is in the public domain when this is partly or wholly untrue
1095 for that work. The <ulink
1096 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain">Wikipedia article
1097 on public domain</ulink> is a useful reference for this subject.
1100 When the <varname>License</varname> field in a paragraph has the
1101 short name <literal>public-domain</literal>, the remaining lines of
1102 the field <emphasis>must</emphasis> explain exactly what exemption
1103 the corresponding files for that paragraph have from default
1104 copyright restrictions.
1109 <section id="license-syntax">
1110 <title>Syntax</title>
1112 License names are case-insensitive, and may not contain spaces.
1115 In case of multi-licensing, the license short names are separated by
1116 <literal>or</literal> when the user can chose between different
1117 licenses, and by <literal>and</literal> when use of the work must
1118 simultaneously comply with the terms of multiple licenses.
1121 For instance, this is a simple, <quote>GPL version 2 or later</quote>
1123 <programlisting>License: GPL-2+</programlisting>
1124 This is a dual-licensed GPL/Artistic work such as Perl:
1125 <programlisting>License: GPL-1+ or Artistic</programlisting>
1126 This is for a file that has both GPL and classic BSD code in it:
1127 <programlisting>License: GPL-2+ and BSD-3-clause</programlisting>
1128 For the most complex cases, a comma is used to disambiguate the
1129 priority of <literal>or</literal>s and <literal>and</literal>s.
1130 The conjunction <quote><literal>and</literal></quote> has priority over
1131 <quote><literal>or</literal></quote> unless preceded by a comma. For
1135 <literal>A or B and C</literal> means <literal>A or (B and C)</literal>.
1138 <literal>A or B, and C</literal> means <literal>(A or B) and
1142 This is for a file that has Perl code and classic BSD code in it:
1143 <programlisting>License: GPL-2+ or Artistic-2.0, and BSD-3-clause</programlisting>
1144 A <literal>GPL-2+</literal> work with the <literal>OpenSSL</literal>
1145 exception is in effect a dual-licensed work that can be redistributed
1146 either under the <literal>GPL-2+</literal>, or under the
1147 <literal>GPL-2+</literal> with the <literal>OpenSSL</literal>
1148 exception. It is thus expressed as <literal>GPL-2+ with OpenSSL
1149 exception</literal>. A possible <varname>License</varname> field for
1151 <programlisting>License: GPL-2+ with OpenSSL exception
1152 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
1153 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
1154 License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
1155 version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
1158 In addition, as a special exception, the author of this
1159 program gives permission to link the code of its
1160 release with the OpenSSL project's "OpenSSL" library (or
1161 with modified versions of it that use the same license as
1162 the "OpenSSL" library), and distribute the linked
1163 executables. You must obey the GNU General Public
1164 License in all respects for all of the code used other
1165 than "OpenSSL". If you modify this file, you may extend
1166 this exception to your version of the file, but you are
1167 not obligated to do so. If you do not wish to do so,
1168 delete this exception statement from your version.
1170 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be
1171 useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
1172 warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
1173 PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more
1176 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
1177 License along with this package; if not, write to the Free
1178 Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor,
1179 Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
1181 On Debian systems, the full text of the GNU General Public
1182 License version 2 can be found in the file
1183 `/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-2'.</programlisting>
1190 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/">SPDX</ulink> is an attempt to standardize
1191 a format for communicating the components, licenses and copyrights
1192 associated with a software package. It and the machine-readable
1193 <filename>debian/copyright</filename> format attempt to be somewhat
1194 compatible. However, the two formats have different aims, and so the
1195 formats are different. The <ulink
1196 url="http://wiki.debian.org/Proposals/CopyrightFormat">DEP5 wiki
1197 page</ulink> will be used to track the differences.
1202 <section id="examples">
1203 <title>Examples</title>
1205 <title>Simple</title>
1207 A possible <filename>debian/copyright</filename> file for the program
1208 <quote>X Solitaire</quote> distributed in the Debian source package
1209 <literal>xsol</literal>:
1210 <programlisting><![CDATA[Format: http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/
1211 Upstream-Name: X Solitaire
1212 Source: ftp://ftp.example.com/pub/games
1215 Copyright: Copyright 1998 John Doe <jdoe@example.com>
1217 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
1218 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
1219 License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
1220 version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
1223 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be
1224 useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
1225 warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
1226 PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more
1229 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
1230 License along with this package; if not, write to the Free
1231 Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor,
1232 Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
1234 On Debian systems, the full text of the GNU General Public
1235 License version 2 can be found in the file
1236 `/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-2'.
1239 Copyright: Copyright 1998 Jane Smith <jsmith@example.net>
1241 [LICENSE TEXT]]]></programlisting>
1246 <title>Complex</title>
1248 A possible <filename>debian/copyright</filename> file for the program
1249 <quote>Planet Venus</quote>, distributed in the Debian source
1250 package <literal>planet-venus</literal>:
1251 <programlisting><![CDATA[Format: http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/
1252 Upstream-Name: Planet Venus
1253 Upstream-Contact: John Doe <jdoe@example.com>
1254 Source: http://www.example.com/code/venus
1257 Copyright: 2008, John Doe <jdoe@example.com>
1258 2007, Jane Smith <jsmith@example.org>
1259 2007, Joe Average <joe@example.org>
1260 2007, J. Random User <jr@users.example.com>
1265 Copyright: 2008, Dan Developer <dan@debian.example.com>
1267 Copying and distribution of this package, with or without
1268 modification, are permitted in any medium without royalty
1269 provided the copyright notice and this notice are
1272 Files: debian/patches/theme-diveintomark.patch
1273 Copyright: 2008, Joe Hacker <hack@example.org>
1277 Files: planet/vendor/compat_logging/*
1278 Copyright: 2002, Mark Smith <msmith@example.org>
1282 Files: planet/vendor/httplib2/*
1283 Copyright: 2006, John Brown <brown@example.org>
1285 Unspecified MIT style license.
1287 Files: planet/vendor/feedparser.py
1288 Copyright: 2007, Mike Smith <mike@example.org>
1292 Files: planet/vendor/htmltmpl.py
1293 Copyright: 2004, Thomas Brown <coder@example.org>
1295 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
1296 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
1297 License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
1298 version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
1301 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be
1302 useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
1303 warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
1304 PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more
1307 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
1308 License along with this package; if not, write to the Free
1309 Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor,
1310 Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
1312 On Debian systems, the full text of the GNU General Public
1313 License version 2 can be found in the file
1314 `/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-2'.]]></programlisting>