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10 <article class="specification" lang="en" id="copyright-format-1.0">
13 Machine-readable <filename>debian/copyright</filename> file
15 <subtitle>Version 1.0</subtitle>
16 <releaseinfo>Debian Policy &version;, &date;</releaseinfo>
19 Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
20 are permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is
26 Establishes a standard, machine-readable format for
27 <filename>debian/copyright</filename> files within Debian packages
28 to facilitate automated checking and reporting of licenses for
29 packages and sets of packages. This specification was originally
31 <ulink url="http://dep.debian.net/deps/dep5/">DEP-5</ulink>.
36 <section id="introduction">
37 <title>Introduction</title>
39 This document describes a standard, machine-interpretable format for
40 the <filename>debian/copyright</filename> file. This file is one of
41 the most important files in Debian packaging, but, prior to this
42 specification, no standard format was defined for it and its
43 contents varied tremendously across packages. This made it
44 difficult to automatically extract licensing information.
47 Use of this specification is optional.
50 Nothing in this proposal supersedes or modifies any of the requirements
51 specified in Debian Policy regarding the appropriate detail or
52 granularity to use when documenting copyright and license status in
53 <filename>debian/copyright</filename>.
57 <section id="rationale">
58 <title>Rationale</title>
60 The diversity of free software licenses means that Debian needs to care
61 not only about the freeness of a given work, but also its license's
62 compatibility with the other parts of Debian it uses.
65 The arrival of the GPL version 3, its incompatibility with version 2, and
66 our inability to spot the software where the incompatibility might be
67 problematic is one prominent occurrence of this limitation.
70 There are earlier precedents, also. One is the GPL/OpenSSL
71 incompatibility. Apart from grepping
72 <filename>debian/copyright</filename>, which is prone to numerous false
73 positives (packaging under the GPL but software under another license) or
74 negatives (GPL software but with an <quote>OpenSSL special
75 exception</quote> dual licensing form), there is no reliable way to know
76 which software in Debian might be problematic.
79 And there is more to come. There are issues with shipping GPLv2-only
80 software with a CDDL operating system such as Nexenta. The GPL version 3
81 solves this issue, but not all GPL software can switch to it and we have
82 no way to know how much of Debian should be stripped from such a system.
85 Even where licenses are DFSG-free and mutually compatible, users may
86 wish for a way to identify software under certain licenses (if, for
87 example, they have special reasons to avoid certain licenses).
91 <section id="acknowledgements">
92 <title>Acknowledgements</title>
94 Many people have worked on this specification over the years. The
95 following alphabetical list is incomplete; please suggest missing people:
107 <section id="file-syntax">
108 <title>File syntax</title>
110 The <filename>debian/copyright</filename> file must be
111 machine-interpretable, yet human-readable, while communicating all
112 mandated upstream information, copyright notices and licensing details.
115 The syntax of the file is the same as for other Debian control files, as
116 specified in the Debian Policy Manual. See its <ulink
117 url="http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-controlfields#s-controlsyntax">section
118 5.1</ulink> for details. Extra fields can be added to any paragraph. No
119 prefixing is necessary or desired, but please avoid names similar to
120 standard ones so that mistakes are easier to catch. Future versions of
121 the <filename>debian/copyright</filename> specification will attempt to
122 avoid conflicting specifications for widely used extra fields.
125 The file consists of two or more paragraphs. At minimum, the file
126 must include one <link linkend="header-paragraph">header
127 paragraph</link> and one <link linkend="files-paragraph">Files
131 There are four types of fields. The definition for each field in this
132 document indicates which type of value it takes.
135 <section id="single-line">
136 <title>Single-line values</title>
138 The entire value of a single-line field must be on a single line.
139 For example, the <varname>Format</varname> field has a single-line
140 value specifying the version of the machine-readable format that
145 <section id="white-space-lists">
146 <title>Whitespace-separated lists</title>
148 Field values defined as whitespace-separated lists may be on one
149 line or many. Values in the list are separated by one or more
150 whitespace characters (space, tab, or newline). For example, the
151 <varname>Files</varname> field contains a whitespace-separated
152 list of filename patterns.
156 <section id="line-based-lists">
157 <title>Line-based lists</title>
159 Line-based lists have one value per line. For example, the
160 <varname>Upstream-Contact</varname> field contains a line-based
161 list of contact addresses.
165 <section id="formatted-text">
166 <title>Formatted text</title>
168 Formatted text fields use the same rules as the long description
169 in a package's <varname>Description</varname> field in Debian
170 control files. In some but not all cases, the first line may have
171 special meaning as a synopsis, similar to how the
172 <varname>Description</varname> field uses the first line for the
173 short description. See Debian Policy's section 5.6.13, <ulink
174 url="http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-controlfields#s-f-Description"><quote>Description</quote></ulink>,
175 for details. For example, <varname>Disclaimer</varname> is a
176 formatted text field that has no special first line, and
177 <varname>License</varname> is a formatted text field where the
178 first line indicates the short name or names of the licenses.
183 <section id="paragraphs">
184 <title>Paragraphs</title>
186 There are three kinds of paragraphs. The first paragraph in the file
187 is called the <link linkend="header-paragraph">header paragraph</link>.
188 Every other paragraph is either a <link
189 linkend="files-paragraph">Files paragraph</link> or a <link
190 linkend="stand-alone-license-paragraph">stand-alone License
191 paragraph</link>. This is similar to source and binary package
192 paragraphs in <filename>debian/control</filename> files.
195 <section id="header-paragraph">
196 <title>Header paragraph (once)</title>
198 The following fields may be present in a header paragraph.
203 <link linkend="format-field">Format</link>: required.
208 <link linkend="upstream-name-field">Upstream-Name</link>:
215 linkend="upstream-contact-field">Upstream-Contact</link>:
221 <link linkend="source-field">Source</link>: optional.
226 <link linkend="disclaimer-field">Disclaimer</link>:
232 <link linkend="comment-field">Comment</link>: optional.
237 <link linkend="license-field">License</link>: optional.
242 <link linkend="copyright-field">Copyright</link>: optional.
247 The <varname>Copyright</varname> and <varname>License</varname>
248 fields in the <emphasis>header paragraph</emphasis> may complement
249 but do not replace the <emphasis>Files paragraphs</emphasis>. If
250 present, they summarise the copyright notices or redistribution
251 terms for the package as a whole. For example, when a work
252 combines a permissive and a copyleft license,
253 <varname>License</varname> can be used to clarify the license
254 terms for the combination. <varname>Copyright</varname> and
255 <varname>License</varname> together can also be used to document a
256 <emphasis>compilation copyright</emphasis> and license. It is
257 possible to use only <varname>License</varname> in the header
258 paragraph, but <varname>Copyright</varname> alone makes no sense.
261 <section id="example-header-paragraph">
262 <title>Example header paragraph</title>
263 <programlisting>Format: http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/
264 Upstream-Name: SOFTware
265 Upstream-Contact: John Doe <john.doe@example.com>
266 Source: http://www.example.com/software/project</programlisting>
270 <section id="files-paragraph">
271 <title>Files paragraph (repeatable)</title>
273 The declaration of copyright and license for files may consist of
274 one or more paragraphs. In the simplest case, a single paragraph
275 with <literal>Files: *</literal> can be used to state the license
276 and copyright for the whole package. Only the license and
277 copyright information required by the Debian archive is required
281 The following fields may be present in a Files paragraph.
287 <link linkend="files-field">Files</link>: required.
292 <link linkend="copyright-field">Copyright</link>: required.
297 <link linkend="license-field">License</link>: required.
302 <link linkend="comment-field">Comment</link>: optional.
307 <section id="example-files-paragraph">
308 <title>Example files paragraphs</title>
309 <programlisting>Files: *
310 Copyright: 1975-2010 Ulla Upstream
314 Copyright: 2010 Daniela Debianizer
317 Files: debian/patches/fancy-feature
318 Copyright: 2010 Daniela Debianizer
322 Copyright: 2010 Manuela Manpager
323 License: GPL-2+</programlisting>
325 In this example, all files are copyright by the upstream and licensed
326 under the GPL, version 2 or later, with three exceptions. All the
327 Debian packaging files are copyright by the packager, and further one
328 specific file providing a new feature is licensed differently.
329 Finally, there are some manual pages added to the package, written by
333 Since the license of the manual pages is the same as the other
334 files in the package, the last paragraph above could instead be
335 combined with the first paragraph, listing both copyright
336 statements in one <varname>Copyright</varname> field. Whether
337 to combine paragraphs with the same license is left to the
338 discretion of the author of the
339 <filename>debian/copyright</filename> file.
344 <section id="stand-alone-license-paragraph">
345 <title>Stand-alone License Paragraph (optional, repeatable)</title>
347 Stand-alone <varname>License</varname> paragraphs can be used to
348 provide the full license text for a given license once, instead of
349 repeating it in each <varname>Files</varname> paragraph that refers to
350 it. The first line of the <varname>License</varname> field must be a
351 single license short name or a short name followed by a license
355 The following fields may be present in a stand-alone License
362 <link linkend="license-field">License</link>: required.
367 <link linkend="comment-field">Comment</link>: optional.
372 <title>tri-licensed files</title>
373 <programlisting>Files: src/js/editline/*
374 Copyright: 1993, John Doe
376 License: MPL-1.1 or GPL-2 or LGPL-2.1
385 [LICENSE TEXT]</programlisting>
389 <title>recurrent license</title>
390 <programlisting>Files: src/js/editline/*
391 Copyright: 1993, John Doe
395 Files: src/js/fdlibm/*
396 Copyright: 1993, J-Random Corporation
400 [LICENSE TEXT]</programlisting>
405 <section id="fields">
406 <title>Fields</title>
408 The following fields are defined for use in
409 <filename>debian/copyright</filename>.
412 <section id="format-field">
413 <title><varname>Format</varname></title>
415 Single-line: URI of the format specification. The field that
416 should be used for the current version of this document is:
417 <programlisting>Format: http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/</programlisting>
421 <section id="upstream-name-field">
422 <title><varname>Upstream-Name</varname></title>
424 Single-line: the name upstream uses for the software
428 <section id="upstream-contact-field">
429 <title><varname>Upstream-Contact</varname></title>
431 Line-based list: the preferred address(es) to reach the upstream
432 project. May be free-form text, but by convention will usually be
433 written as a list of RFC5322 addresses or URIs.
437 <section id="source-field">
438 <title><varname>Source</varname></title>
440 Formatted text, no synopsis: an explanation of where the upstream
441 source came from. Typically this would be a URL, but it might be a
442 free-form explanation. The Debian Policy section <ulink
443 url="http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-docs#s-copyrightfile">12.5</ulink>
444 requires this information unless there are no upstream sources,
445 which is mainly the case for native Debian packages. If the
446 upstream source has been modified to remove non-free parts, that
447 should be explained in this field.
451 <section id="disclaimer-field">
452 <title><varname>Disclaimer</varname></title>
454 Formatted text, no synopsis: this field is used for non-free or
455 contrib packages to state that they are not part of Debian and to
456 explain why (see Debian Policy section <ulink
457 url="http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-docs#s-copyrightfile">12.5</ulink>).
461 <section id="comment-field">
462 <title><varname>Comment</varname></title>
464 Formatted text, no synopsis: this field can provide additional
465 information. For example, it might quote an e-mail from upstream
466 justifying why the license is acceptable to the main archive, or an
467 explanation of how this version of the package has been forked from
468 a version known to be DFSG-free, even though the current upstream
473 <section id="license-field">
474 <title><varname>License</varname></title>
476 Formatted text, with synopsis. In the header paragraph, this field
477 gives the license information for the package as a whole, which may
478 be different or simplified from a combination of all the per-file
479 license information. In a Files paragraph, this field gives the
480 licensing terms for the files listed in the <varname>Files</varname>
481 field for this paragraph. In a stand-alone License paragraph, it
482 gives the licensing terms for those paragraphs which reference it.
485 First line: an abbreviated name for the license, or expression
486 giving alternatives (see the <link linkend="license-short-name">Short
487 name</link> section for a list of standard abbreviations). If
488 there are licenses present in the package without a standard short
489 name, an arbitrary short name may be assigned for these licenses.
490 These arbitrary names are only guaranteed to be unique within a
491 single copyright file.
494 If there are no remaining lines, then all of the short names
495 or short names followed by license exceptions making up the
496 first line must be described in <link
497 linkend="stand-alone-license-paragraph">stand-alone License
498 paragraphs</link>. Otherwise, this field should either
499 include the full text of the license(s) or include a pointer to the
500 license file under <filename>/usr/share/common-licenses</filename>.
501 This field should include all text needed in order to fulfill both
502 Debian Policy's requirement for including a copy of the software's
503 distribution license (<ulink
504 url="http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-docs#s-copyrightfile">12.5</ulink>),
505 and any license requirements to include warranty disclaimers or
506 other notices with the binary package.
510 <section id="copyright-field">
511 <title><varname>Copyright</varname></title>
513 Formatted text, no synopsis: one or more free-form copyright
514 statements. Any formatting is permitted; see the examples below
515 for some ideas for how to structure the field to make it easier to
516 read. In the header paragraph, this field gives the copyright
517 information for the package as a whole, which may be different or
518 simplified from a combination of all the per-file copyright
519 information. In the Files paragraphs, it gives the copyright
520 information that applies to the files matched by the
521 <varname>Files</varname> pattern. If a work has no copyright holder
522 (i.e., it is in the public domain), that information should be
526 The <varname>Copyright</varname> field collects all relevant
527 copyright notices for the files of this paragraph. Not all
528 copyright notices may apply to every individual file, and years of
529 publication for one copyright holder may be gathered together. For
530 example, if file A has:
531 <programlisting>Copyright 2008 John Smith
532 Copyright 2009 Angela Watts</programlisting>
534 <programlisting>Copyright 2010 Angela Watts</programlisting>
535 a single paragraph may still be used for both files. The
536 <varname>Copyright</varname> field for that paragraph would
538 <programlisting>Copyright 2008 John Smith
539 Copyright 2009, 2010 Angela Watts</programlisting>
542 The <varname>Copyright</varname> field may contain the original
543 copyright statement copied exactly (including the word
544 <quote>Copyright</quote>), or it may shorten the text or merge it
545 with other copyright statements as described above, as long as it
546 does not sacrifice information. Examples in this specification use
551 <section id="files-field">
552 <title><varname>Files</varname></title>
554 Whitespace-separated list: list of patterns indicating files covered
555 by the license and copyright specified in this paragraph.
558 Filename patterns in the <varname>Files</varname> field are
559 specified using a simplified shell glob syntax. Patterns are
560 separated by whitespace.
564 Only the wildcards <literal>*</literal> and <literal>?</literal>
565 apply; the former matches any number of characters (including
566 none), the latter a single character. Both match slashs
567 (<literal>/</literal>) and leading dots, unlike shell globs.
568 The pattern <literal>*.in</literal> therefore matches any
569 file whose name ends in <literal>.in</literal> anywhere in
570 the source tree, not just at the top level.
575 Patterns match pathnames that start at the root of the source
576 tree. Thus, <quote><filename>Makefile.in</filename></quote>
577 matches only the file at the root of the tree, but
578 <quote><filename>*/Makefile.in</filename></quote> matches at
584 The backslash (<literal>\</literal>) is used to remove the
585 magic from the next character; see table below.
593 <entry>Escape sequence</entry>
594 <entry>Matches</entry>
599 <entry><literal>\*</literal></entry>
600 <entry>star (asterisk)</entry>
603 <entry><literal>\?</literal></entry>
604 <entry>question mark</entry>
607 <entry><literal>\\</literal></entry>
608 <entry>backslash</entry>
613 Any other character following a backslash is an error.
616 This is the same pattern syntax as
617 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>fnmatch</refentrytitle>
618 <manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry> without the
619 <constant>FNM_PATHNAME</constant> flag, or the argument to the
620 <literal>-path</literal> test of the GNU <command>find</command>
621 command, except that <literal>[]</literal> wildcards are not
625 Multiple <varname>Files</varname> paragraphs are allowed. The last
626 paragraph that matches a particular file applies to it. More
627 general paragraphs should therefore be given first, followed by
628 more specific overrides.
631 Exclusions are only supported by adding <varname>Files</varname>
632 paragraphs to override the previous match.
637 <section id="license-specification">
638 <title>License specification</title>
640 <section id="license-short-name">
641 <title>Short name</title>
643 Much of the value of a machine-parseable copyright file lies in being
644 able to correlate the licenses of multiple pieces of software. To that
645 end, this spec defines standard short names for a number of commonly
646 used licenses, which can be used in the first line of a
647 <varname>License</varname> field.
650 These short names have the specified meanings across all uses of this
651 file format, and <emphasis>must not</emphasis> be used to refer to any
652 other licenses. Parsers may thus rely on these short names referring
653 to the same licenses wherever they occur, without needing to parse or
654 compare the full license text.
657 From time to time, licenses may be added to or removed from the list of
658 standard short names. Such changes in the list of short names will
659 always be accompanied by changes to the version of this standard
660 and to the recommended
661 <varname>Format</varname> value. Implementers who are parsing copyright
662 files should take care not to assume anything about the meaning of
663 license short names for unknown <varname>Format</varname> versions.
666 Use of a standard short name does not override the Debian Policy
667 requirement to include the full license text in
668 <filename>debian/copyright</filename>, nor any requirements in the
669 license of the work regarding reproduction of legal notices. This
670 information must still be included in the <varname>License</varname>
671 field, either in a stand-alone License paragraph or in the relevant
675 For licenses that have multiple versions in use, the short name is
676 formed from the general short name of the license family, followed
677 by a dash and the version number. If the version number is
678 omitted, the lowest version number is implied. When the license
679 grant permits using the terms of any later version of that
680 license, add a plus sign to the end of the short name. For
681 example, the short name <literal>GPL</literal> refers to the GPL
682 version 1 and is equivalent to <literal>GPL-1</literal>, although
683 the latter is clearer and therefore preferred. If the package may
684 be distributed under the GPL version 1 or any later version, use a
685 short name of <literal>GPL-1+</literal>.
688 For <link linkend="spdx">SPDX</link> compatibility, versions with
689 trailing <emphasis>dot-zeroes</emphasis> are considered to be
690 equivalent to versions without (e.g., <quote>2.0.0</quote> is
691 considered equal to <quote>2.0</quote> and <quote>2</quote>).
694 Currently, the full text of the licenses is only available in the
695 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses">SPDX Open Source License
702 <entry>Keyword</entry>
703 <entry>Meaning</entry>
708 <entry>public-domain</entry>
710 No license required for any purpose; the work is not subject to
711 copyright in any jurisdiction.
720 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/Apache-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
721 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/Apache-2.0">2.0</ulink>.
730 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/Artistic-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
731 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/Artistic-2.0">2.0</ulink>.
739 Berkeley software distribution license,
740 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/BSD-2-Clause">2-clause
749 Berkeley software distribution license,
750 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/BSD-3-Clause">3-clause
759 Berkeley software distribution license,
760 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/BSD-4-Clause">4-clause
769 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/ISC">Internet Software
770 Consortium</ulink>, sometimes also known as the OpenBSD License.
778 Creative Commons Attribution license
779 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
780 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
781 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-2.5">2.5</ulink>,
782 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-3.0">3.0</ulink>.
790 Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike license
791 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-SA-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
792 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-SA-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
793 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-SA-2.5">2.5</ulink>,
794 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-SA-3.0">3.0</ulink>.
802 Creative Commons Attribution No Derivatives license
803 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-ND-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
804 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-ND-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
805 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-ND-2.5">2.5</ulink>,
806 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-ND-3.0">3.0</ulink>.
814 Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial license
815 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
816 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
817 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-2.5">2.5</ulink>,
818 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-3.0">3.0</ulink>.
826 Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license
827 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-SA-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
828 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-SA-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
829 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-SA-2.5">2.5</ulink>,
830 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-SA-3.0">3.0</ulink>.
838 Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives
840 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-ND-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
841 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-ND-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
842 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-ND-2.5">2.5</ulink>,
843 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-ND-3.0">3.0</ulink>.
851 Creative Commons Zero
852 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC0-1.0">1.0 Universal</ulink>.
853 Omit <quote>Universal</quote> from the license version when
854 forming the short name.
862 Common Development and Distribution License
863 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CDDL-1.0">1.0</ulink>.
871 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CPL-1.0">IBM Common Public
880 The Eiffel Forum License
881 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/EFL-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
882 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/EFL-2.0">2.0</ulink>.
890 The <ulink url="http://www.jclark.com/xml/copying.txt">Expat</ulink>
899 GNU General Public License
900 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/GPL-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
901 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/GPL-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
902 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/GPL-3.0">3.0</ulink>.
910 GNU Lesser General Public License
911 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/LGPL-2.1">2.1</ulink>,
912 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/LGPL-3.0">3.0</ulink>, or
913 GNU Library General Public License
914 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/LGPL-2.0">2.0</ulink>.
922 GNU Free Documentation License 1.0,
923 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/GFDL-1.1">1.1</ulink>,
924 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/GFDL-1.2">1.2</ulink>, or
925 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/GFDL-1.3">1.3</ulink>.
926 Use GFDL-NIV instead if there are no Front-Cover or
927 Back-Cover Texts or Invariant Sections.
935 GNU Free Documentation License, with no Front-Cover or
936 Back-Cover Texts or Invariant Sections. Use the same
937 version numbers as GFDL.
945 <ulink url="http://www.latex-project.org/lppl/">LaTeX Project
946 Public License</ulink>
947 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/LPPL-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
948 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/LPPL-1.1">1.1</ulink>,
949 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/LPPL-1.2">1.2</ulink>,
950 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/LPPL-1.3c">1.3c</ulink>.
958 Mozilla Public License
959 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/MPL-1.1">1.1</ulink>.
967 <ulink url="http://dev.perl.org/licenses/">Perl</ulink> license
968 (use <quote><literal>GPL-1+ or Artistic-1</literal></quote>
978 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/Python-2.0">2.0</ulink>.
980 <!-- See https://fossbazaar.org/pipermail/spdx-legal/2011-February/000010.html -->
987 Q Public License <ulink
988 url="http://spdx.org/licenses/QPL-1.0">1.0</ulink>.
996 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/W3C">W3C Software
997 License</ulink> For more information, consult the
999 url="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/IPR-FAQ-20000620">W3C
1000 Intellectual Rights FAQ</ulink>.
1008 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/Zlib">
1009 zlib/libpng license</ulink>.
1017 Zope Public License 1.0,
1018 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/ZPL-1.1">1.1</ulink>,
1019 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/ZPL-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
1020 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/ZPL-2.1">2.1</ulink>.
1028 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_License#Various_versions">many
1029 versions of the MIT license</ulink>. Please use Expat instead, when it
1033 An exception or clarification to a license is signalled in plain text,
1034 by appending <literal>with
1035 <varname><replaceable>keywords</replaceable></varname>
1036 exception</literal> to the short name. This document provides a list
1037 of keywords that must be used when referring to the most frequent
1038 exceptions. When exceptions other than these are in effect that
1039 modify a common license by granting additional permissions, you may
1040 use an arbitrary keyword not taken from the below list of keywords.
1041 When a license differs from a common license because of added
1042 restrictions rather than because of added permissions, a distinct
1043 short name should be used instead of <literal>with
1044 <varname><replaceable>keywords</replaceable></varname>
1045 exception</literal>.
1048 Only one exception may be specified for each license within a given
1049 license specification. If more than one exception applies to a single
1050 license, an arbitrary short name indicating that combination of
1051 multiple exceptions must be used instead.
1054 The GPL <literal>Font</literal> exception refers to the text added to
1055 the license notice of each file as specified at <ulink
1056 url="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq#FontException">How does the
1057 GPL apply to fonts</ulink>. The precise text corresponding to this
1059 <programlisting>As a special exception, if you create a document which uses this font,
1060 and embed this font or unaltered portions of this font into the
1061 document, this font does not by itself cause the resulting document to
1062 be covered by the GNU General Public License. This exception does not
1063 however invalidate any other reasons why the document might be covered
1064 by the GNU General Public License. If you modify this font, you may
1065 extend this exception to your version of the font, but you are not
1066 obligated to do so. If you do not wish to do so, delete this exception
1067 statement from your version.</programlisting>
1070 The GPL <literal>OpenSSL</literal> exception gives permission to
1071 link GPL-licensed code with the OpenSSL library, which contains
1072 GPL-incompatible clauses. For more information, see <ulink
1073 url="http://www.gnome.org/~markmc/openssl-and-the-gpl">The OpenSSL
1074 License and The GPL</ulink> by Mark McLoughlin and the message
1076 url="http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2004/05/msg00595.html">middleman
1077 software license conflicts with OpenSSL</ulink> by Mark McLoughlin
1078 on the <emphasis>debian-legal</emphasis> mailing list. The text
1079 corresponding to this exception is:
1080 <programlisting>In addition, as a special exception, the copyright holders give
1081 permission to link the code of portions of this program with the
1082 OpenSSL library under certain conditions as described in each
1083 individual source file, and distribute linked combinations including
1086 You must obey the GNU General Public License in all respects for all
1087 of the code used other than OpenSSL. If you modify file(s) with this
1088 exception, you may extend this exception to your version of the
1089 file(s), but you are not obligated to do so. If you do not wish to do
1090 so, delete this exception statement from your version. If you delete
1091 this exception statement from all source files in the program, then
1092 also delete it here.</programlisting>
1095 <section id="public-domain">
1096 <title>Public domain</title>
1098 The <varname>License</varname> short name
1099 <literal>public-domain</literal> does not refer to a set of license
1100 terms. There are some works which are not subject to copyright in
1101 any jurisdiction and therefore no license is required for any
1102 purpose covered by copyright law. This short name is an explicit
1103 declaration that the associated files are <quote>in the public
1107 Widespread misunderstanding about copyright in general, and the
1108 public domain in particular, results in the common assertion that a
1109 work is in the public domain when this is partly or wholly untrue
1110 for that work. The <ulink
1111 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain">Wikipedia article
1112 on public domain</ulink> is a useful reference for this subject.
1115 When the <varname>License</varname> field in a paragraph has the
1116 short name <literal>public-domain</literal>, the remaining lines of
1117 the field <emphasis>must</emphasis> explain exactly what exemption
1118 the corresponding files for that paragraph have from default
1119 copyright restrictions.
1124 <section id="license-syntax">
1125 <title>Syntax</title>
1127 License names are case-insensitive, and may not contain spaces.
1130 In case of multi-licensing, the license short names are separated by
1131 <literal>or</literal> when the user can chose between different
1132 licenses, and by <literal>and</literal> when use of the work must
1133 simultaneously comply with the terms of multiple licenses.
1136 For instance, this is a simple, <quote>GPL version 2 or later</quote>
1138 <programlisting>License: GPL-2+</programlisting>
1139 This is a dual-licensed GPL/Artistic work such as Perl:
1140 <programlisting>License: GPL-1+ or Artistic</programlisting>
1141 This is for a file that has both GPL and classic BSD code in it:
1142 <programlisting>License: GPL-2+ and BSD-3-clause</programlisting>
1143 For the most complex cases, a comma is used to disambiguate the
1144 priority of <literal>or</literal>s and <literal>and</literal>s.
1145 The conjunction <quote><literal>and</literal></quote> has priority over
1146 <quote><literal>or</literal></quote> unless preceded by a comma. For
1150 <literal>A or B and C</literal> means <literal>A or (B and C)</literal>.
1153 <literal>A or B, and C</literal> means <literal>(A or B) and
1157 This is for a file that has Perl code and classic BSD code in it:
1158 <programlisting>License: GPL-2+ or Artistic-2.0, and BSD-3-clause</programlisting>
1159 A <literal>GPL-2+</literal> work with the <literal>OpenSSL</literal>
1160 exception is in effect a dual-licensed work that can be redistributed
1161 either under the <literal>GPL-2+</literal>, or under the
1162 <literal>GPL-2+</literal> with the <literal>OpenSSL</literal>
1163 exception. It is thus expressed as <literal>GPL-2+ with OpenSSL
1164 exception</literal>. A possible <varname>License</varname> field for
1166 <programlisting>License: GPL-2+ with OpenSSL exception
1167 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
1168 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
1169 License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
1170 version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
1173 In addition, as a special exception, the author of this
1174 program gives permission to link the code of its
1175 release with the OpenSSL project's "OpenSSL" library (or
1176 with modified versions of it that use the same license as
1177 the "OpenSSL" library), and distribute the linked
1178 executables. You must obey the GNU General Public
1179 License in all respects for all of the code used other
1180 than "OpenSSL". If you modify this file, you may extend
1181 this exception to your version of the file, but you are
1182 not obligated to do so. If you do not wish to do so,
1183 delete this exception statement from your version.
1185 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be
1186 useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
1187 warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
1188 PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more
1191 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
1192 License along with this package; if not, write to the Free
1193 Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor,
1194 Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
1196 On Debian systems, the full text of the GNU General Public
1197 License version 2 can be found in the file
1198 `/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-2'.</programlisting>
1205 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/">SPDX</ulink> is an attempt to standardize
1206 a format for communicating the components, licenses and copyrights
1207 associated with a software package. It and the machine-readable
1208 <filename>debian/copyright</filename> format attempt to be somewhat
1209 compatible. However, the two formats have different aims, and so the
1210 formats are different. The <ulink
1211 url="http://wiki.debian.org/Proposals/CopyrightFormat">DEP5 wiki
1212 page</ulink> will be used to track the differences.
1217 <section id="examples">
1218 <title>Examples</title>
1220 <title>Simple</title>
1222 A possible <filename>debian/copyright</filename> file for the program
1223 <quote>X Solitaire</quote> distributed in the Debian source package
1224 <literal>xsol</literal>:
1225 <programlisting><![CDATA[Format: http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/
1226 Upstream-Name: X Solitaire
1227 Source: ftp://ftp.example.com/pub/games
1230 Copyright: Copyright 1998 John Doe <jdoe@example.com>
1232 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
1233 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
1234 License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
1235 version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
1238 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be
1239 useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
1240 warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
1241 PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more
1244 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
1245 License along with this package; if not, write to the Free
1246 Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor,
1247 Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
1249 On Debian systems, the full text of the GNU General Public
1250 License version 2 can be found in the file
1251 `/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-2'.
1254 Copyright: Copyright 1998 Jane Smith <jsmith@example.net>
1256 [LICENSE TEXT]]]></programlisting>
1261 <title>Complex</title>
1263 A possible <filename>debian/copyright</filename> file for the program
1264 <quote>Planet Venus</quote>, distributed in the Debian source
1265 package <literal>planet-venus</literal>:
1266 <programlisting><![CDATA[Format: http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/
1267 Upstream-Name: Planet Venus
1268 Upstream-Contact: John Doe <jdoe@example.com>
1269 Source: http://www.example.com/code/venus
1272 Copyright: 2008, John Doe <jdoe@example.com>
1273 2007, Jane Smith <jsmith@example.org>
1274 2007, Joe Average <joe@example.org>
1275 2007, J. Random User <jr@users.example.com>
1280 Copyright: 2008, Dan Developer <dan@debian.example.com>
1282 Copying and distribution of this package, with or without
1283 modification, are permitted in any medium without royalty
1284 provided the copyright notice and this notice are
1287 Files: debian/patches/theme-diveintomark.patch
1288 Copyright: 2008, Joe Hacker <hack@example.org>
1292 Files: planet/vendor/compat_logging/*
1293 Copyright: 2002, Mark Smith <msmith@example.org>
1297 Files: planet/vendor/httplib2/*
1298 Copyright: 2006, John Brown <brown@example.org>
1300 Unspecified MIT style license.
1302 Files: planet/vendor/feedparser.py
1303 Copyright: 2007, Mike Smith <mike@example.org>
1307 Files: planet/vendor/htmltmpl.py
1308 Copyright: 2004, Thomas Brown <coder@example.org>
1310 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
1311 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
1312 License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
1313 version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
1316 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be
1317 useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
1318 warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
1319 PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more
1322 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
1323 License along with this package; if not, write to the Free
1324 Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor,
1325 Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
1327 On Debian systems, the full text of the GNU General Public
1328 License version 2 can be found in the file
1329 `/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-2'.]]></programlisting>