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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 for a way to identify software under certain licenses (if, for
84 example, they have special reasons to avoid certain licenses).
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 the first line for the
170 short 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>
245 fields in the <emphasis>header paragraph</emphasis> may complement
246 but do not replace the <emphasis>Files paragraphs</emphasis>. If
247 present, they summarise the copyright notices or redistribution
248 terms for the package as a whole. For example, when a work
249 combines a permissive and a copyleft license,
250 <varname>License</varname> can be used to clarify the license
251 terms for the combination. <varname>Copyright</varname> and
252 <varname>License</varname> together can also be used to document a
253 <emphasis>compilation copyright</emphasis> and license. It is
254 possible to use only <varname>License</varname> in the header
255 paragraph, but <varname>Copyright</varname> alone makes no sense.
258 <section id="example-header-paragraph">
259 <title>Example header paragraph</title>
260 <programlisting>Format: http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/
261 Upstream-Name: SOFTware
262 Upstream-Contact: John Doe <john.doe@example.com>
263 Source: http://www.example.com/software/project</programlisting>
267 <section id="files-paragraph">
268 <title>Files paragraph (repeatable)</title>
270 The declaration of copyright and license for files may consist of
271 one or more paragraphs. In the simplest case, a single paragraph
272 with <literal>Files: *</literal> can be used to state the license
273 and copyright for the whole package. Only the license and
274 copyright information required by the Debian archive is required
278 The following fields may be present in a Files paragraph.
284 <link linkend="files-field">Files</link>: required.
289 <link linkend="copyright-field">Copyright</link>: required.
294 <link linkend="license-field">License</link>: required.
299 <link linkend="comment-field">Comment</link>: optional.
304 <section id="example-files-paragraph">
305 <title>Example files paragraphs</title>
306 <programlisting>Files: *
307 Copyright: 1975-2010 Ulla Upstream
311 Copyright: 2010 Daniela Debianizer
314 Files: debian/patches/fancy-feature
315 Copyright: 2010 Daniela Debianizer
319 Copyright: 2010 Manuela Manpager
320 License: GPL-2+</programlisting>
322 In this example, all files are copyright by the upstream and licensed
323 under the GPL, version 2 or later, with three exceptions. All the
324 Debian packaging files are copyright by the packager, and further one
325 specific file providing a new feature is licensed differently.
326 Finally, there are some manual pages added to the package, written by
330 Since the license of the manual pages is the same as the other
331 files in the package, the last paragraph above could instead be
332 combined with the first paragraph, listing both copyright
333 statements in one <varname>Copyright</varname> field. Whether
334 to combine paragraphs with the same license is left to the
335 discretion of the author of the
336 <filename>debian/copyright</filename> file.
341 <section id="stand-alone-license-paragraph">
342 <title>Stand-alone License Paragraph (optional, repeatable)</title>
344 Stand-alone <varname>License</varname> paragraphs can be used to
345 provide the full license text for a given license once, instead of
346 repeating it in each <varname>Files</varname> paragraph that refers to
347 it. The first line of the <varname>License</varname> field must be a
348 single license short name or a short name followed by a license
352 The following fields may be present in a stand-alone License
359 <link linkend="license-field">License</link>: required.
364 <link linkend="comment-field">Comment</link>: optional.
369 <title>tri-licensed files</title>
370 <programlisting>Files: src/js/editline/*
371 Copyright: 1993, John Doe
373 License: MPL-1.1 or GPL-2 or LGPL-2.1
382 [LICENSE TEXT]</programlisting>
386 <title>recurrent license</title>
387 <programlisting>Files: src/js/editline/*
388 Copyright: 1993, John Doe
392 Files: src/js/fdlibm/*
393 Copyright: 1993, J-Random Corporation
397 [LICENSE TEXT]</programlisting>
402 <section id="fields">
403 <title>Fields</title>
405 The following fields are defined for use in
406 <filename>debian/copyright</filename>.
409 <section id="format-field">
410 <title><varname>Format</varname></title>
412 Single-line: URI of the format specification. The field that
413 should be used for the current version of this document is:
414 <programlisting>Format: http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/</programlisting>
418 <section id="upstream-name-field">
419 <title><varname>Upstream-Name</varname></title>
421 Single-line: the name upstream uses for the software
425 <section id="upstream-contact-field">
426 <title><varname>Upstream-Contact</varname></title>
428 Line-based list: the preferred address(es) to reach the upstream
429 project. May be free-form text, but by convention will usually be
430 written as a list of RFC5322 addresses or URIs.
434 <section id="source-field">
435 <title><varname>Source</varname></title>
437 Formatted text, no synopsis: an explanation of where the upstream
438 source came from. Typically this would be a URL, but it might be a
439 free-form explanation. The Debian Policy section <ulink
440 url="http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-docs#s-copyrightfile">12.5</ulink>
441 requires this information unless there are no upstream sources,
442 which is mainly the case for native Debian packages. If the
443 upstream source has been modified to remove non-free parts, that
444 should be explained in this field.
448 <section id="disclaimer-field">
449 <title><varname>Disclaimer</varname></title>
451 Formatted text, no synopsis: this field is used for non-free or
452 contrib packages to state that they are not part of Debian and to
453 explain why (see Debian Policy section <ulink
454 url="http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-docs#s-copyrightfile">12.5</ulink>).
458 <section id="comment-field">
459 <title><varname>Comment</varname></title>
461 Formatted text, no synopsis: this field can provide additional
462 information. For example, it might quote an e-mail from upstream
463 justifying why the license is acceptable to the main archive, or an
464 explanation of how this version of the package has been forked from
465 a version known to be DFSG-free, even though the current upstream
470 <section id="license-field">
471 <title><varname>License</varname></title>
473 Formatted text, with synopsis. In the header paragraph, this field
474 gives the license information for the package as a whole, which may
475 be different or simplified from a combination of all the per-file
476 license information. In a Files paragraph, this field gives the
477 licensing terms for the files listed in the <varname>Files</varname>
478 field for this paragraph. In a stand-alone License paragraph, it
479 gives the licensing terms for those paragraphs which reference it.
482 First line: an abbreviated name for the license, or expression
483 giving alternatives (see the <link linkend="license-short-name">Short
484 name</link> section for a list of standard abbreviations). If
485 there are licenses present in the package without a standard short
486 name, an arbitrary short name may be assigned for these licenses.
487 These arbitrary names are only guaranteed to be unique within a
488 single copyright file.
491 If there are no remaining lines, then all of the short names
492 or short names followed by license exceptions making up the
493 first line must be described in <link
494 linkend="stand-alone-license-paragraph">stand-alone License
495 paragraphs</link>. Otherwise, this field should either
496 include the full text of the license(s) or include a pointer to the
497 license file under <filename>/usr/share/common-licenses</filename>.
498 This field should include all text needed in order to fulfill both
499 Debian Policy's requirement for including a copy of the software's
500 distribution license (<ulink
501 url="http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-docs#s-copyrightfile">12.5</ulink>),
502 and any license requirements to include warranty disclaimers or
503 other notices with the binary package.
507 <section id="copyright-field">
508 <title><varname>Copyright</varname></title>
510 Formatted text, no synopsis: one or more free-form copyright
511 statements. Any formatting is permitted; see the examples below
512 for some ideas for how to structure the field to make it easier to
513 read. In the header paragraph, this field gives the copyright
514 information for the package as a whole, which may be different or
515 simplified from a combination of all the per-file copyright
516 information. In the Files paragraphs, it gives the copyright
517 information that applies to the files matched by the
518 <varname>Files</varname> pattern. If a work has no copyright holder
519 (i.e., it is in the public domain), that information should be
523 The <varname>Copyright</varname> field collects all relevant
524 copyright notices for the files of this paragraph. Not all
525 copyright notices may apply to every individual file, and years of
526 publication for one copyright holder may be gathered together. For
527 example, if file A has:
528 <programlisting>Copyright 2008 John Smith
529 Copyright 2009 Angela Watts</programlisting>
531 <programlisting>Copyright 2010 Angela Watts</programlisting>
532 a single paragraph may still be used for both files. The
533 <varname>Copyright</varname> field for that paragraph would
535 <programlisting>Copyright 2008 John Smith
536 Copyright 2009, 2010 Angela Watts</programlisting>
539 The <varname>Copyright</varname> field may contain the original
540 copyright statement copied exactly (including the word
541 <quote>Copyright</quote>), or it may shorten the text or merge it
542 with other copyright statements as described above, as long as it
543 does not sacrifice information. Examples in this specification use
548 <section id="files-field">
549 <title><varname>Files</varname></title>
551 Whitespace-separated list: list of patterns indicating files covered
552 by the license and copyright specified in this paragraph.
555 Filename patterns in the <varname>Files</varname> field are
556 specified using a simplified shell glob syntax. Patterns are
557 separated by whitespace.
561 Only the wildcards <literal>*</literal> and <literal>?</literal>
562 apply; the former matches any number of characters (including
563 none), the latter a single character. Both match slashs
564 (<literal>/</literal>) and leading dots, unlike shell globs.
565 The pattern <literal>*.in</literal> therefore matches any
566 file whose name ends in <literal>.in</literal> anywhere in
567 the source tree, not just at the top level.
572 Patterns match pathnames that start at the root of the source
573 tree. Thus, <quote><filename>Makefile.in</filename></quote>
574 matches only the file at the root of the tree, but
575 <quote><filename>*/Makefile.in</filename></quote> matches at
581 The backslash (<literal>\</literal>) is used to remove the
582 magic from the next character; see table below.
590 <entry>Escape sequence</entry>
591 <entry>Matches</entry>
596 <entry><literal>\*</literal></entry>
597 <entry>star (asterisk)</entry>
600 <entry><literal>\?</literal></entry>
601 <entry>question mark</entry>
604 <entry><literal>\\</literal></entry>
605 <entry>backslash</entry>
610 Any other character following a backslash is an error.
613 This is the same pattern syntax as
614 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>fnmatch</refentrytitle>
615 <manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry> without the
616 <constant>FNM_PATHNAME</constant> flag, or the argument to the
617 <literal>-path</literal> test of the GNU <command>find</command>
618 command, except that <literal>[]</literal> wildcards are not
622 Multiple <varname>Files</varname> paragraphs are allowed. The last
623 paragraph that matches a particular file applies to it. More
624 general paragraphs should therefore be given first, followed by
625 more specific overrides.
628 Exclusions are only supported by adding <varname>Files</varname>
629 paragraphs to override the previous match.
634 <section id="license-specification">
635 <title>License specification</title>
637 <section id="license-short-name">
638 <title>Short name</title>
640 Much of the value of a machine-parseable copyright file lies in being
641 able to correlate the licenses of multiple pieces of software. To that
642 end, this spec defines standard short names for a number of commonly
643 used licenses, which can be used in the first line of a
644 <varname>License</varname> field.
647 These short names have the specified meanings across all uses of this
648 file format, and <emphasis>must not</emphasis> be used to refer to any
649 other licenses. Parsers may thus rely on these short names referring
650 to the same licenses wherever they occur, without needing to parse or
651 compare the full license text.
654 From time to time, licenses may be added to or removed from the list of
655 standard short names. Such changes in the list of short names will
656 always be accompanied by changes to the version of this standard
657 and to the recommended
658 <varname>Format</varname> value. Implementers who are parsing copyright
659 files should take care not to assume anything about the meaning of
660 license short names for unknown <varname>Format</varname> versions.
663 Use of a standard short name does not override the Debian Policy
664 requirement to include the full license text in
665 <filename>debian/copyright</filename>, nor any requirements in the
666 license of the work regarding reproduction of legal notices. This
667 information must still be included in the <varname>License</varname>
668 field, either in a stand-alone License paragraph or in the relevant
672 For licenses that have multiple versions in use, the short name is
673 formed from the general short name of the license family, followed
674 by a dash and the version number. If the version number is
675 omitted, the lowest version number is implied. When the license
676 grant permits using the terms of any later version of that
677 license, add a plus sign to the end of the short name. For
678 example, the short name <literal>GPL</literal> refers to the GPL
679 version 1 and is equivalent to <literal>GPL-1</literal>, although
680 the latter is clearer and therefore preferred. If the package may
681 be distributed under the GPL version 1 or any later version, use a
682 short name of <literal>GPL-1+</literal>.
685 For <link linkend="spdx">SPDX</link> compatibility, versions with
686 trailing <emphasis>dot-zeroes</emphasis> are considered to be
687 equivalent to versions without (e.g., <quote>2.0.0</quote> is
688 considered equal to <quote>2.0</quote> and <quote>2</quote>).
691 Currently, the full text of the licenses is only available in the
692 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses">SPDX Open Source License
699 <entry>Keyword</entry>
700 <entry>Meaning</entry>
705 <entry>public-domain</entry>
707 No license required for any purpose; the work is not subject to
708 copyright in any jurisdiction.
717 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/Apache-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
718 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/Apache-2.0">2.0</ulink>.
727 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/Artistic-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
728 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/Artistic-2.0">2.0</ulink>.
736 Berkeley software distribution license,
737 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/BSD-2-Clause">2-clause
746 Berkeley software distribution license,
747 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/BSD-3-Clause">3-clause
756 Berkeley software distribution license,
757 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/BSD-4-Clause">4-clause
766 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/ISC">Internet Software
767 Consortium</ulink>, sometimes also known as the OpenBSD License.
775 Creative Commons Attribution license
776 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
777 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
778 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-2.5">2.5</ulink>,
779 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-3.0">3.0</ulink>.
787 Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike license
788 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-SA-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
789 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-SA-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
790 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-SA-2.5">2.5</ulink>,
791 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-SA-3.0">3.0</ulink>.
799 Creative Commons Attribution No Derivatives license
800 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-ND-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
801 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-ND-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
802 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-ND-2.5">2.5</ulink>,
803 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-ND-3.0">3.0</ulink>.
811 Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial license
812 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
813 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
814 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-2.5">2.5</ulink>,
815 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-3.0">3.0</ulink>.
823 Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license
824 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-SA-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
825 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-SA-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
826 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-SA-2.5">2.5</ulink>,
827 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-SA-3.0">3.0</ulink>.
835 Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives
837 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-ND-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
838 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-ND-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
839 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-ND-2.5">2.5</ulink>,
840 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-ND-3.0">3.0</ulink>.
848 Creative Commons Zero
849 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC0-1.0">1.0 Universal</ulink>.
850 Omit <quote>Universal</quote> from the license version when
851 forming the short name.
859 Common Development and Distribution License
860 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CDDL-1.0">1.0</ulink>.
868 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CPL-1.0">IBM Common Public
877 The Eiffel Forum License
878 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/EFL-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
879 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/EFL-2.0">2.0</ulink>.
887 The <ulink url="http://www.jclark.com/xml/copying.txt">Expat</ulink>
896 GNU General Public License
897 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/GPL-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
898 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/GPL-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
899 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/GPL-3.0">3.0</ulink>.
907 GNU Lesser General Public License
908 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/LGPL-2.1">2.1</ulink>,
909 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/LGPL-3.0">3.0</ulink>, or
910 GNU Library General Public License
911 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/LGPL-2.0">2.0</ulink>.
919 GNU Free Documentation License 1.0,
920 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/GFDL-1.1">1.1</ulink>,
921 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/GFDL-1.2">1.2</ulink>, or
922 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/GFDL-1.3">1.3</ulink>.
923 Use GFDL-NIV instead if there are no Front-Cover or
924 Back-Cover Texts or Invariant Sections.
932 GNU Free Documentation License, with no Front-Cover or
933 Back-Cover Texts or Invariant Sections. Use the same
934 version numbers as GFDL.
942 <ulink url="http://www.latex-project.org/lppl/">LaTeX Project
943 Public License</ulink>
944 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/LPPL-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
945 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/LPPL-1.1">1.1</ulink>,
946 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/LPPL-1.2">1.2</ulink>,
947 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/LPPL-1.3c">1.3c</ulink>.
955 Mozilla Public License
956 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/MPL-1.1">1.1</ulink>.
964 <ulink url="http://dev.perl.org/licenses/">Perl</ulink> license
965 (use <quote><literal>GPL-1+ or Artistic-1</literal></quote>
975 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/Python-2.0">2.0</ulink>.
977 <!-- See https://fossbazaar.org/pipermail/spdx-legal/2011-February/000010.html -->
984 Q Public License <ulink
985 url="http://spdx.org/licenses/QPL-1.0">1.0</ulink>.
993 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/W3C">W3C Software
994 License</ulink> For more information, consult the
996 url="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/IPR-FAQ-20000620">W3C
997 Intellectual Rights FAQ</ulink>.
1005 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/Zlib">
1006 zlib/libpng license</ulink>.
1014 Zope Public License 1.0,
1015 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/ZPL-1.1">1.1</ulink>,
1016 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/ZPL-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
1017 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/ZPL-2.1">2.1</ulink>.
1025 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_License#Various_versions">many
1026 versions of the MIT license</ulink>. Please use Expat instead, when it
1030 An exception or clarification to a license is signalled in plain text,
1031 by appending <literal>with
1032 <varname><replaceable>keywords</replaceable></varname>
1033 exception</literal> to the short name. This document provides a list
1034 of keywords that must be used when referring to the most frequent
1035 exceptions. When exceptions other than these are in effect that
1036 modify a common license by granting additional permissions, you may
1037 use an arbitrary keyword not taken from the below list of keywords.
1038 When a license differs from a common license because of added
1039 restrictions rather than because of added permissions, a distinct
1040 short name should be used instead of <literal>with
1041 <varname><replaceable>keywords</replaceable></varname>
1042 exception</literal>.
1045 Only one exception may be specified for each license within a given
1046 license specification. If more than one exception applies to a single
1047 license, an arbitrary short name indicating that combination of
1048 multiple exceptions must be used instead.
1051 The GPL <literal>Font</literal> exception refers to the text added to
1052 the license notice of each file as specified at <ulink
1053 url="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq#FontException">How does the
1054 GPL apply to fonts</ulink>. The precise text corresponding to this
1056 <programlisting>As a special exception, if you create a document which uses this font,
1057 and embed this font or unaltered portions of this font into the
1058 document, this font does not by itself cause the resulting document to
1059 be covered by the GNU General Public License. This exception does not
1060 however invalidate any other reasons why the document might be covered
1061 by the GNU General Public License. If you modify this font, you may
1062 extend this exception to your version of the font, but you are not
1063 obligated to do so. If you do not wish to do so, delete this exception
1064 statement from your version.</programlisting>
1067 The GPL <literal>OpenSSL</literal> exception gives permission to
1068 link GPL-licensed code with the OpenSSL library, which contains
1069 GPL-incompatible clauses. For more information, see <ulink
1070 url="http://www.gnome.org/~markmc/openssl-and-the-gpl">The OpenSSL
1071 License and The GPL</ulink> by Mark McLoughlin and the message
1073 url="http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2004/05/msg00595.html">middleman
1074 software license conflicts with OpenSSL</ulink> by Mark McLoughlin
1075 on the <emphasis>debian-legal</emphasis> mailing list. The text
1076 corresponding to this exception is:
1077 <programlisting>In addition, as a special exception, the copyright holders give
1078 permission to link the code of portions of this program with the
1079 OpenSSL library under certain conditions as described in each
1080 individual source file, and distribute linked combinations including
1083 You must obey the GNU General Public License in all respects for all
1084 of the code used other than OpenSSL. If you modify file(s) with this
1085 exception, you may extend this exception to your version of the
1086 file(s), but you are not obligated to do so. If you do not wish to do
1087 so, delete this exception statement from your version. If you delete
1088 this exception statement from all source files in the program, then
1089 also delete it here.</programlisting>
1092 <section id="public-domain">
1093 <title>Public domain</title>
1095 The <varname>License</varname> short name
1096 <literal>public-domain</literal> does not refer to a set of license
1097 terms. There are some works which are not subject to copyright in
1098 any jurisdiction and therefore no license is required for any
1099 purpose covered by copyright law. This short name is an explicit
1100 declaration that the associated files are <quote>in the public
1104 Widespread misunderstanding about copyright in general, and the
1105 public domain in particular, results in the common assertion that a
1106 work is in the public domain when this is partly or wholly untrue
1107 for that work. The <ulink
1108 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain">Wikipedia article
1109 on public domain</ulink> is a useful reference for this subject.
1112 When the <varname>License</varname> field in a paragraph has the
1113 short name <literal>public-domain</literal>, the remaining lines of
1114 the field <emphasis>must</emphasis> explain exactly what exemption
1115 the corresponding files for that paragraph have from default
1116 copyright restrictions.
1121 <section id="license-syntax">
1122 <title>Syntax</title>
1124 License names are case-insensitive, and may not contain spaces.
1127 In case of multi-licensing, the license short names are separated by
1128 <literal>or</literal> when the user can chose between different
1129 licenses, and by <literal>and</literal> when use of the work must
1130 simultaneously comply with the terms of multiple licenses.
1133 For instance, this is a simple, <quote>GPL version 2 or later</quote>
1135 <programlisting>License: GPL-2+</programlisting>
1136 This is a dual-licensed GPL/Artistic work such as Perl:
1137 <programlisting>License: GPL-1+ or Artistic</programlisting>
1138 This is for a file that has both GPL and classic BSD code in it:
1139 <programlisting>License: GPL-2+ and BSD-3-clause</programlisting>
1140 For the most complex cases, a comma is used to disambiguate the
1141 priority of <literal>or</literal>s and <literal>and</literal>s.
1142 The conjunction <quote><literal>and</literal></quote> has priority over
1143 <quote><literal>or</literal></quote> unless preceded by a comma. For
1147 <literal>A or B and C</literal> means <literal>A or (B and C)</literal>.
1150 <literal>A or B, and C</literal> means <literal>(A or B) and
1154 This is for a file that has Perl code and classic BSD code in it:
1155 <programlisting>License: GPL-2+ or Artistic-2.0, and BSD-3-clause</programlisting>
1156 A <literal>GPL-2+</literal> work with the <literal>OpenSSL</literal>
1157 exception is in effect a dual-licensed work that can be redistributed
1158 either under the <literal>GPL-2+</literal>, or under the
1159 <literal>GPL-2+</literal> with the <literal>OpenSSL</literal>
1160 exception. It is thus expressed as <literal>GPL-2+ with OpenSSL
1161 exception</literal>. A possible <varname>License</varname> field for
1163 <programlisting>License: GPL-2+ with OpenSSL exception
1164 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
1165 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
1166 License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
1167 version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
1170 In addition, as a special exception, the author of this
1171 program gives permission to link the code of its
1172 release with the OpenSSL project's "OpenSSL" library (or
1173 with modified versions of it that use the same license as
1174 the "OpenSSL" library), and distribute the linked
1175 executables. You must obey the GNU General Public
1176 License in all respects for all of the code used other
1177 than "OpenSSL". If you modify this file, you may extend
1178 this exception to your version of the file, but you are
1179 not obligated to do so. If you do not wish to do so,
1180 delete this exception statement from your version.
1182 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be
1183 useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
1184 warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
1185 PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more
1188 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
1189 License along with this package; if not, write to the Free
1190 Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor,
1191 Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
1193 On Debian systems, the full text of the GNU General Public
1194 License version 2 can be found in the file
1195 `/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-2'.</programlisting>
1202 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/">SPDX</ulink> is an attempt to standardize
1203 a format for communicating the components, licenses and copyrights
1204 associated with a software package. It and the machine-readable
1205 <filename>debian/copyright</filename> format attempt to be somewhat
1206 compatible. However, the two formats have different aims, and so the
1207 formats are different. The <ulink
1208 url="http://wiki.debian.org/Proposals/CopyrightFormat">DEP5 wiki
1209 page</ulink> will be used to track the differences.
1214 <section id="examples">
1215 <title>Examples</title>
1217 <title>Simple</title>
1219 A possible <filename>debian/copyright</filename> file for the program
1220 <quote>X Solitaire</quote> distributed in the Debian source package
1221 <literal>xsol</literal>:
1222 <programlisting><![CDATA[Format: http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/
1223 Upstream-Name: X Solitaire
1224 Source: ftp://ftp.example.com/pub/games
1227 Copyright: Copyright 1998 John Doe <jdoe@example.com>
1229 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
1230 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
1231 License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
1232 version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
1235 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be
1236 useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
1237 warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
1238 PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more
1241 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
1242 License along with this package; if not, write to the Free
1243 Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor,
1244 Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
1246 On Debian systems, the full text of the GNU General Public
1247 License version 2 can be found in the file
1248 `/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-2'.
1251 Copyright: Copyright 1998 Jane Smith <jsmith@example.net>
1253 [LICENSE TEXT]]]></programlisting>
1258 <title>Complex</title>
1260 A possible <filename>debian/copyright</filename> file for the program
1261 <quote>Planet Venus</quote>, distributed in the Debian source
1262 package <literal>planet-venus</literal>:
1263 <programlisting><![CDATA[Format: http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/
1264 Upstream-Name: Planet Venus
1265 Upstream-Contact: John Doe <jdoe@example.com>
1266 Source: http://www.example.com/code/venus
1269 Copyright: 2008, John Doe <jdoe@example.com>
1270 2007, Jane Smith <jsmith@example.org>
1271 2007, Joe Average <joe@example.org>
1272 2007, J. Random User <jr@users.example.com>
1277 Copyright: 2008, Dan Developer <dan@debian.example.com>
1279 Copying and distribution of this package, with or without
1280 modification, are permitted in any medium without royalty
1281 provided the copyright notice and this notice are
1284 Files: debian/patches/theme-diveintomark.patch
1285 Copyright: 2008, Joe Hacker <hack@example.org>
1289 Files: planet/vendor/compat_logging/*
1290 Copyright: 2002, Mark Smith <msmith@example.org>
1294 Files: planet/vendor/httplib2/*
1295 Copyright: 2006, John Brown <brown@example.org>
1297 Unspecified MIT style license.
1299 Files: planet/vendor/feedparser.py
1300 Copyright: 2007, Mike Smith <mike@example.org>
1304 Files: planet/vendor/htmltmpl.py
1305 Copyright: 2004, Thomas Brown <coder@example.org>
1307 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
1308 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
1309 License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
1310 version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
1313 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be
1314 useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
1315 warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
1316 PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more
1319 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
1320 License along with this package; if not, write to the Free
1321 Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor,
1322 Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
1324 On Debian systems, the full text of the GNU General Public
1325 License version 2 can be found in the file
1326 `/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-2'.]]></programlisting>