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13 <article class="specification" status="draft" lang="en" id="copyright-format">
16 Machine-readable <filename>debian/copyright</filename> file.
20 Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification, are
21 permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright notice
22 and this notice are preserved.
27 Establish a standard, machine-readable format for
28 <filename>debian/copyright</filename> files within packages and to
29 facilitate automated checking and reporting of licenses for packages
35 <section id="introduction">
36 <title>Introduction</title>
38 This is a proposal to make <filename>debian/copyright</filename>
39 machine-interpretable. This file is one of the most important files in
40 Debian packaging, yet there is currently no standard format defined for it
41 and its contents vary tremendously across packages, making it difficult to
42 automatically extract licensing information.
45 This is not a proposal to change the policy in the short term. In
46 particular, nothing in this proposal supersedes or modifies any of the
47 requirements specified in Debian Policy regarding the appropriate detail
48 or granularity to use when documenting copyright and license status in
49 <filename>debian/copyright</filename>.
53 <section id="rationale">
54 <title>Rationale</title>
56 The diversity of free software licenses means that Debian needs to care
57 not only about the freeness of a given work, but also its license's
58 compatibility with the other parts of Debian it uses.
61 The arrival of the GPL version 3, its incompatibility with version 2, and
62 our inability to spot the software where the incompatibility might be
63 problematic is one prominent occurrence of this limitation.
66 There are earlier precedents, also. One is the GPL/OpenSSL
67 incompatibility. Apart from grepping
68 <filename>debian/copyright</filename>, which is prone to numerous false
69 positives (packaging under the GPL but software under another license) or
70 negatives (GPL software but with an <quote>OpenSSL special
71 exception</quote> dual licensing form), there is no reliable way to know
72 which software in Debian might be problematic.
75 And there is more to come. There are issues with shipping GPLv2-only
76 software with a CDDL operating system such as Nexenta. The GPL version 3
77 solves this issue, but not all GPL software can switch to it and we have
78 no way to know how much of Debian should be stripped from such a system.
81 A user might want to have a way to avoid software with certain licenses
82 they have a problem with, even if the licenses are DFSG-free. For example,
87 <section id="acknowledgements">
88 <title>Acknowledgements</title>
90 Many people have worked on this specification over the years. The
91 following alphabetical list is incomplete, please suggest missing people:
103 <section id="file-syntax">
104 <title>File syntax</title>
106 The <filename>debian/copyright</filename> file must be
107 machine-interpretable, yet human-readable, while communicating all
108 mandated upstream information, copyright notices and licensing details.
111 The syntax of the file is the same as for other Debian control files, as
112 specified in the Debian Policy Manual. See its <ulink
113 url="http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-controlfields#s-controlsyntax">section
114 5.1</ulink> for details. Extra fields can be added to any paragraph. No
115 prefixing is necessary or desired, but please avoid names similar to
116 standard ones so that mistakes are easier to catch. Future versions of
117 the <filename>debian/copyright</filename> specification will attempt to
118 avoid conflicting specifications for widely used extra fields.
121 The file consists of two or more paragraphs. At minimum, the file
122 must include one <link linkend="header-paragraph">header
123 paragraph</link> and one <link linkend="files-paragraph">Files
127 The value of each field is of one of the four types listed below. The
128 definition for each field in this document indicates which type of
132 <section id="single-line">
133 <title>Single-line values</title>
135 A single-line value means that the whole value of a field must fit
136 on a single line. For example, the <varname>Format</varname> field
137 has a single-line value specifying the version of the
138 machine-readable format that is used.
142 <section id="white-space-lists">
143 <title>Whitespace-separated lists</title>
145 A whitespace-separated list means that the field value may be on one
146 line or many, but values in the list are separated by one or more
147 whitespace characters (including space, TAB, and newline). For
148 example, the <varname>Files</varname> field has a list of filename
153 <section id="line-based-lists">
154 <title>Line-based lists</title>
156 Another kind of list value has one value per line. For example,
157 <varname>Copyright</varname> can list many copyright statements, one per
162 <section id="formatted-text">
163 <title>Text formatted like package long descriptions</title>
165 Formatted text fields use the same rules as the long description in a
166 package's <varname>Description</varname> field, possibly also using the
167 first line as a synopsis, like <varname>Description</varname> uses it
168 for the short description. See Debian Policy's section 5.6.13, <ulink
169 url="http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-controlfields#s-f-Description"><quote>Description</quote></ulink>,
170 for details. For example, <varname>Disclaimer</varname> has no special
171 first line, whereas <varname>License</varname> does.
176 <section id="paragraphs">
177 <title>Paragraphs</title>
179 There are three kinds of paragraphs. The first paragraph in the file
180 is called the <link linkend="header-paragraph">header paragraph</link>.
181 Every other paragraph is either a <link
182 linkend="files-paragraph">Files paragraph</link> or a <link
183 linkend="stand-alone-license-paragraph">stand-alone License
184 paragraph</link>. This is similar to source and binary package
185 paragraphs in <filename>debian/control</filename> files.
188 <section id="header-paragraph">
189 <title>Header paragraph (Once)</title>
191 The following fields may be present in a header paragraph.
196 <link linkend="format-field">Format</link>: required.
201 <link linkend="upstream-name-field">Upstream-Name</link>:
208 linkend="upstream-contact-field">Upstream-Contact</link>:
214 <link linkend="source-field">Source</link>: optional.
219 <link linkend="disclaimer-field">Disclaimer</link>:
225 <link linkend="comment-field">Comment</link>: optional.
230 <link linkend="license-field">License</link>: optional.
235 <link linkend="copyright-field">Copyright</link>: optional.
240 The <varname>Copyright</varname> and <varname>License</varname>
241 fields in the <emphasis>header paragraph</emphasis> may complement
242 but do not replace the <emphasis>Files paragraphs</emphasis>. They
243 can be used to summarise the contributions and redistribution terms
244 for the whole package, for instance when a work combines a
245 permissive and a copyleft license, or to document a
246 <emphasis>compilation copyright</emphasis> and license. It is
247 possible to use only <varname>License</varname> in the header
248 paragraph, but <varname>Copyright</varname> alone makes no sense.
251 <section id="example-header-paragraph">
252 <title>Example header paragraph</title>
253 <programlisting>Format: http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/
254 Upstream-Name: SOFTware
255 Upstream-Contact: John Doe <john.doe@example.com>
256 Source: http://www.example.com/software/project</programlisting>
260 <section id="files-paragraph">
261 <title>Files paragraph (Repeatable)</title>
263 The declaration of copyright and license for files is done in one or
264 more paragraphs. In the simplest case, a single paragraph can be used
265 which applies to all files and lists all applicable copyrights and
269 The following fields may be present in a Files paragraph.
275 <link linkend="files-field">Files</link>: required.
280 <link linkend="license-field">Copyright</link>: required.
285 <link linkend="license-field">License</link>: required.
290 <link linkend="comment-field">Comment</link>: optional.
295 <section id="example-files-paragraph">
296 <title>Example files paragraphs</title>
297 <programlisting>Files: *
298 Copyright: 1975-2010 Ulla Upstream
302 Copyright: 2010 Daniela Debianizer
305 Files: debian/patches/fancy-feature
306 Copyright: 2010 Daniela Debianizer
310 Copyright: 2010 Manuela Manpager
311 License: GPL-2+</programlisting>
313 In this example, all files are copyright by the upstream and licensed
314 under the GPL, version 2 or later, with three exceptions. All the
315 Debian packaging files are copyright by the packager, and further one
316 specific file providing a new feature is licensed differently.
317 Finally, there are some manual pages added to the package, written by
323 <section id="stand-alone-license-paragraph">
324 <title>Stand-alone License Paragraph (Optional, Repeatable)</title>
326 Where a set of files are dual (tri, etc) licensed, or when the same
327 license occurs multiple times, you can use a single-line
328 <varname>License</varname> field and stand-alone
329 <varname>License</varname> paragraphs to expand the license short names.
332 The following fields may be present in a stand-alone License
339 <link linkend="license-field">License</link>: required.
344 <link linkend="comment-field">Comment</link>: optional.
349 <title>tri-licensed files</title>
350 <programlisting>Files: src/js/editline/*
351 Copyright: 1993, John Doe
353 License: MPL-1.1 or GPL-2 or LGPL-2.1
362 [LICENSE TEXT]</programlisting>
366 <title>recurrent license</title>
367 <programlisting>Files: src/js/editline/*
368 Copyright: 1993, John Doe
372 Files: src/js/fdlibm/*
373 Copyright: 1993, J-Random Corporation
377 [LICENSE TEXT]</programlisting>
382 <section id="fields">
383 <title>Fields</title>
385 The following fields are defined for use in
386 <filename>debian/copyright</filename>.
389 <section id="format-field">
390 <title><varname>Format</varname></title>
392 Single-line: URI of the format specification, such as:
393 <literal>http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/</literal>.
397 <section id="upstream-name-field">
398 <title><varname>Upstream-Name</varname></title>
400 Single-line: the name upstream uses for the software
404 <section id="upstream-contact-field">
405 <title><varname>Upstream-Contact</varname></title>
407 Line-based list: the preferred address(es) to reach the upstream
408 project. May be free-form text, but by convention will usually be
409 written as a list of RFC5322 addresses or URIs.
413 <section id="source-field">
414 <title><varname>Source</varname></title>
416 Formatted text, no synopsis: an explanation from where the upstream
417 source came from. Typically this would be a URL, but it might be a
418 free-form explanation. The Debian Policy section <ulink
419 url="http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-docs#s-copyrightfile">12.5</ulink>
420 requires this information unless there are no upstream sources,
421 which is mainly the case for native Debian packages. If the
422 upstream source has been modified to remove non-free parts, that
423 should be explained in this field.
427 <section id="disclaimer-field">
428 <title><varname>Disclaimer</varname></title>
430 Formatted text, no synopsis: this field can be used in the case of
431 non-free and contrib packages (see <ulink
432 url="http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-docs#s-copyrightfile">12.5</ulink>).
436 <section id="comment-field">
437 <title><varname>Comment</varname></title>
439 Formatted text, no synopsis: this field can provide additional
440 information. For example, it might quote an e-mail from upstream
441 justifying why the license is acceptable to the main archive, or an
442 explanation of how this version of the package has been forked from
443 a version known to be DFSG-free, even though the current upstream
448 <section id="license-field">
449 <title><varname>License</varname></title>
451 Formatted text, with synopsis. In the header paragraph, this field
452 gives the license information for the package as a whole, which may
453 be different or simplified from a combination of all the per-file
454 license information. In a Files paragraph, this field gives the
455 licensing terms for the files listed in the <varname>Files</varname>
456 field for this paragraph. In a stand-alone License paragraph, it
457 gives the licensing terms for those paragraphs which reference it.
460 First line: an abbreviated name for the license, or expression
461 giving alternatives (see <link linkend="license-short-name">Short
462 names</link> section for a list of standard abbreviations). If
463 there are licenses present in the package without a standard short
464 name, an arbitrary short name may be assigned for these licenses.
465 These arbitrary names are only guaranteed to be unique within a
466 single copyright file.
469 Remaining lines: if left blank here, the file
470 <emphasis>must</emphasis> include a <link
471 linkend="stand-alone-license-paragraph">stand-alone License
472 paragraph</link> matching each license short
473 name listed on the first line.
474 Otherwise, this field should either
475 include the full text of the license(s) or include a pointer to the
476 license file under <filename>/usr/share/common-licenses</filename>.
477 This field should include all text needed in order to fulfill both
478 Debian Policy's requirement for including a copy of the software's
479 distribution license (<ulink
480 url="http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-docs#s-copyrightfile">12.5</ulink>),
481 and any license requirements to include warranty disclaimers or
482 other notices with the binary package.
486 <section id="copyright-field">
487 <title><varname>Copyright</varname></title>
489 Formatted text, no synopsis: one or more free-form copyright
490 statement(s). Any formatting is permitted; see the examples below
491 for some ideas for how to structure the field to make it easier to
492 read. In the header paragraph, this field gives the copyright
493 information for the package as a whole, which may be different or
494 simplified from a combination of all the per-file copyright
495 information. In the Files paragraphs, it gives the copyright
496 information that applies to the files matched by the
497 <varname>Files</varname> pattern. If a work has no copyright holder
498 (i.e., it is in the public domain), that information should be
502 The <varname>Copyright</varname> field collects all relevant
503 copyright notices for the files of this paragraph. Not all
504 copyright notices may apply to every individual file, and years of
505 publication for one copyright holder may be gathered together. For
506 example, if file A has:
507 <programlisting>Copyright 2008 John Smith
508 Copyright 2009 Angela Watts</programlisting>
510 <programlisting>Copyright 2010 Angela Watts</programlisting>
511 the <varname>Copyright</varname> field for a stanza covering both
512 file A and file B need contain only:
513 <programlisting>Copyright 2008 John Smith
514 Copyright 2009, 2010 Angela Watts</programlisting>
517 The <varname>Copyright</varname> field may contain the original
518 copyright statement copied exactly (including the word
519 <quote>Copyright</quote>), or it can shorten the text, as long as it
520 does not sacrifice information. Examples in this specification use
525 <section id="files-field">
526 <title><varname>Files</varname></title>
528 Whitespace-separated list: list of patterns indicating files covered
529 by the license and copyright specified in this paragraph.
532 Filename patterns in the <varname>Files</varname> field are
533 specified using a simplified shell glob syntax. Patterns are
534 separated by whitespace.
538 Only the wildcards <literal>*</literal> and <literal>?</literal>
539 apply; the former matches any number of characters (including
540 none), the latter a single character. Both match a slash
541 (<literal>/</literal>) and a leading dot.
546 Patterns match pathnames that start at the root of the source
547 tree. Thus, <quote><filename>Makefile.in</filename></quote>
548 matches only the file at the root of the tree, but
549 <quote><filename>*/Makefile.in</filename></quote> matches at
555 The backslash (<literal>\</literal>) is used to remove the
556 magic from the next character; see table below.
564 <entry>Escape sequence</entry>
565 <entry>Matches</entry>
570 <entry><literal>\*</literal></entry>
571 <entry>star (asterisk)</entry>
574 <entry><literal>\?</literal></entry>
575 <entry>question mark</entry>
578 <entry><literal>\\</literal></entry>
579 <entry>backslash</entry>
584 Any other character following a backslash is an error.
587 Multiple <varname>Files</varname> paragraphs are allowed. The last
588 paragraph that matches a particular file applies to it.
591 Exclusions are done by having multiple <varname>Files</varname>
597 <section id="license-specification">
598 <title>License specification</title>
600 <section id="license-short-name">
601 <title>Short name</title>
603 Much of the value of a machine-parseable copyright file lies in being
604 able to correlate the licenses of multiple pieces of software. To that
605 end, this spec defines standard short names for a number of commonly
606 used licenses, which can be used in the first line of a
607 <varname>License</varname> field.
610 These short names have the specified meanings across all uses of this
611 file format, and <emphasis>must not</emphasis> be used to refer to any
612 other licenses. Parsers may thus rely on these short names referring to
613 the same licenses wherever they occur, without needing to parse or
614 compare the full license text.
617 From time to time, licenses may be added to or removed from the list of
618 standard short names. Such changes in the list of short names will
619 always be accompanied by changes to the recommended
620 <varname>Format</varname> value. Implementers who are parsing copyright
621 files should take care not to assume anything about the meaning of
622 license short names for unknown <varname>Format</varname> versions.
625 Use of a standard short name does not override the Debian Policy
626 requirement to include the full license text in
627 <filename>debian/copyright</filename>, nor any requirements in the
628 license of the work regarding reproduction of legal notices. This
629 information must still be included in the <varname>License</varname>
630 field, either in a stand-alone License paragraph or in the relevant
634 For licenses which have multiple versions in use, the version number is
635 added, using a dash as a separator. If omitted, the lowest version
636 number is implied. When the license grant permits using the terms of any
637 later version of that license, the short name is finished with a plus
638 sign. For <link linkend="spdx">SPDX</link> compatibility, trailing
639 <emphasis>dot-zeroes</emphasis> are considered to be equal to plainer
640 version (e.g., <quote>2.0.0</quote> is considered equal to
641 <quote>2.0</quote> and <quote>2</quote>).
644 Currently, the full text of the licenses is only available in the <ulink
645 url="http://spdx.org/licenses">SPDX Open Source License Registry</ulink>.
651 <entry>Keyword</entry>
652 <entry>Meaning</entry>
657 <entry>public-domain</entry>
659 No license required for any purpose; the work is not subject to
660 copyright in any jurisdiction.
669 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/Apache-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
670 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/Apache-2.0">2.0</ulink>.
679 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/Artistic-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
680 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/Artistic-2.0">2.0</ulink>.
688 Berkeley software distribution license,
689 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/BSD-2-Clause">2-clause
698 Berkeley software distribution license,
699 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/BSD-3-Clause">3-clause
708 Berkeley software distribution license,
709 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/BSD-4-Clause">4-clause
718 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/ISC">Internet Software
719 Consortium</ulink>, sometimes also known as the OpenBSD License.
727 Creative Commons Attribution license
728 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
729 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
730 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-2.5">2.5</ulink>,
731 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-3.0">3.0</ulink>.
739 Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike license
740 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-SA-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
741 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-SA-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
742 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-SA-2.5">2.5</ulink>,
743 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-SA-3.0">3.0</ulink>.
751 Creative Commons Attribution No Derivatives license
752 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-ND-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
753 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-ND-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
754 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-ND-2.5">2.5</ulink>,
755 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-ND-3.0">3.0</ulink>.
763 Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial license
764 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
765 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
766 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-2.5">2.5</ulink>,
767 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-3.0">3.0</ulink>.
775 Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license
776 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-SA-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
777 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-SA-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
778 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-SA-2.5">2.5</ulink>,
779 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-SA-3.0">3.0</ulink>.
787 Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives license
788 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-ND-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
789 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-ND-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
790 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-ND-2.5">2.5</ulink>,
791 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-ND-3.0">3.0</ulink>.
799 Creative Commons Zero
800 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC0-1.0">1.0 Universal</ulink>.
808 Common Development and Distribution License
809 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CDDL-1.0">1.0</ulink>.
817 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CPL-1.0">IBM Common Public
826 The Eiffel Forum License
827 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/EFL-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
828 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/EFL-2.0">2.0</ulink>.
836 The <ulink url="http://www.jclark.com/xml/copying.txt">Expat</ulink>
845 GNU General Public License
846 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/GPL-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
847 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/GPL-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
848 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/GPL-3.0">3.0</ulink>.
856 GNU Lesser General Public License
857 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/LGPL-2.1">2.1</ulink>,
858 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/LGPL-3.0">3.0</ulink>, or
859 GNU Library General Public License
860 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/LGPL-2.0">2.0</ulink>.
868 GNU Free Documentation License 1.0, or
869 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/GFDL-1.1">1.1</ulink>.
877 GNU Free Documentation License, with no invariant sections.
885 <ulink url="http://www.latex-project.org/lppl/">LaTeX Project
886 Public License</ulink>
887 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/LPPL-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
888 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/LPPL-1.1">1.1</ulink>,
889 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/LPPL-1.2">1.2</ulink>,
890 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/LPPL-1.3c">1.3c</ulink>.
898 Mozilla Public License
899 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/MPL-1.1">1.1</ulink>.
907 <ulink url="http://dev.perl.org/licenses/">Perl</ulink> license
908 (use <quote><literal>GPL-1+ or Artistic-1</literal></quote>
918 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/Python-2.0">2.0</ulink>.
920 <!-- See https://fossbazaar.org/pipermail/spdx-legal/2011-February/000010.html -->
927 Q Public License <ulink
928 url="http://spdx.org/licenses/QPL-1.0">1.0</ulink>.
936 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/W3C">W3C Software
937 License</ulink> For more information, consult the
939 url="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/IPR-FAQ-20000620">W3C
940 Intellectual Rights FAQ</ulink>.
948 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/Zlib">
949 zlib/libpng license</ulink>.
957 Zope Public License 1.0,
958 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/ZPL-1.1">1.1</ulink>,
959 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/ZPL-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
960 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/ZPL-2.1">2.1</ulink>.
968 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_License#Various_versions">many
969 versions of the MIT license</ulink>. Please use Expat instead, when it
973 An exception or clarification to a license is signaled in plain text, by appending
974 <literal>with <varname><replaceable>keywords</replaceable></varname>
975 exception</literal> to the short name. This document provides a list of
976 keywords that must be used when referring to the most frequent
977 exceptions. When exceptions other than these are in effect that modify
978 a common license by granting additional permissions, you may use an
979 arbitrary keyword not taken from the below list of keywords. When a
980 license differs from a common license because of added restrictions
981 rather than because of added permissions, a distinct short name should
982 be used instead of <literal>with
983 <varname><replaceable>keywords</replaceable></varname>
987 Only one exception may be specified for each license within a given
988 license specification. If more than one exception applies to a single
989 license, an arbitrary short name must be used instead.
992 The GPL <literal>Font</literal> exception refers to the text added to the
993 license notice of each file as specified at <ulink
994 url="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq#FontException">How does the GPL
995 apply to fonts</ulink>. The precise text corresponding to this
997 <programlisting>As a special exception, if you create a document which uses this font,
998 and embed this font or unaltered portions of this font into the
999 document, this font does not by itself cause the resulting document to
1000 be covered by the GNU General Public License. This exception does not
1001 however invalidate any other reasons why the document might be covered
1002 by the GNU General Public License. If you modify this font, you may
1003 extend this exception to your version of the font, but you are not
1004 obligated to do so. If you do not wish to do so, delete this exception
1005 statement from your version.</programlisting>
1008 The GPL <literal>OpenSSL</literal> exception gives permission to link GPL-licensed
1009 code with the OpenSSL library, which contains GPL-incompatible clauses.
1010 For more information, see <ulink
1011 url="http://www.gnome.org/~markmc/openssl-and-the-gpl">The -OpenSSL License and
1012 The GPL</ulink> by Mark
1013 McLoughlin and the message <ulink
1014 url="http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2004/05/msg00595.html">middleman
1015 software license conflicts with OpenSSL</ulink>
1016 by Mark McLoughlin on the <emphasis>debian-legal</emphasis> mailing list. The text corresponding
1017 to this exception is:
1018 <programlisting>In addition, as a special exception, the copyright holders give
1019 permission to link the code of portions of this program with the
1020 OpenSSL library under certain conditions as described in each
1021 individual source file, and distribute linked combinations including
1024 You must obey the GNU General Public License in all respects for all
1025 of the code used other than OpenSSL. If you modify file(s) with this
1026 exception, you may extend this exception to your version of the
1027 file(s), but you are not obligated to do so. If you do not wish to do
1028 so, delete this exception statement from your version. If you delete
1029 this exception statement from all source files in the program, then
1030 also delete it here.</programlisting>
1033 <section id="public-domain">
1034 <title>Public domain</title>
1036 The <varname>License</varname> short name
1037 <literal>public-domain</literal> does not refer to a set of license
1038 terms. There are some works which are not subject to copyright in
1039 any jurisdiction and therefore no license is required for any
1040 purpose covered by copyright law. This short name is an explicit
1041 declaration that the associated files are <quote>in the public
1045 Widespread misunderstanding about copyright in general, and the
1046 public domain in particular, results in the common assertion that a
1047 work is in the public domain when this is partly or wholly untrue
1048 for that work. The <ulink
1049 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain">Wikipedia article
1050 on public domain</ulink> is a useful reference for this subject.
1053 When the <varname>License</varname> field in a paragraph has the
1054 short name <literal>public-domain</literal>, the remaining lines of
1055 the field <emphasis>must</emphasis> explain exactly what exemption
1056 the corresponding files for that paragraph have from default
1057 copyright restrictions.
1062 <section id="license-syntax">
1063 <title>Syntax</title>
1065 License names are case-insensitive, and may not contain spaces.
1068 In case of multi-licensing, the license short names are separated by
1069 <literal>or</literal> when the user can chose between different licenses,
1070 and by <literal>and</literal> when use of the work must simultaneously
1071 comply with the terms of multiple licenses.
1074 For instance, this is a simple, <quote>GPL version 2 or later</quote>
1076 <programlisting>License: GPL-2+</programlisting>
1077 This is a dual-licensed GPL/Artistic work such as Perl:
1078 <programlisting>License: GPL-1+ or Artistic</programlisting>
1079 This is for a file that has both GPL and classic BSD code in it:
1080 <programlisting>License: GPL-2+ and BSD</programlisting>
1081 For the most complex cases, the comma is used to disambiguate the
1082 priority of <literal>or</literal>s and <literal>and</literal>s
1083 <literal>and</literal> has the priority over <literal>or</literal>,
1084 unless preceded by a comma. For instance:
1087 <literal>A or B and C</literal> means <literal>A or (B and C)</literal>.
1090 <literal>A or B, and C</literal> means <literal>(A or B), and
1094 This is for a file that has Perl code and classic BSD code in it:
1095 <programlisting>License: GPL-2+ or Artistic-2.0, and BSD</programlisting>
1096 A <literal>GPL-2+</literal> work with the <literal>OpenSSL</literal>
1097 exception is in effect a dual-licensed work that can be redistributed
1098 either under the <literal>GPL-2+</literal>, or under the
1099 <literal>GPL-2+</literal> with the <literal>OpenSSL</literal> exception.
1100 It is thus expressed as <literal>GPL-2+ with OpenSSL
1101 exception</literal>:
1102 <programlisting>License: GPL-2+ with OpenSSL exception
1103 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
1104 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
1105 License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
1106 version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
1109 In addition, as a special exception, the author of this
1110 program gives permission to link the code of its
1111 release with the OpenSSL project's "OpenSSL" library (or
1112 with modified versions of it that use the same license as
1113 the "OpenSSL" library), and distribute the linked
1114 executables. You must obey the GNU General Public
1115 License in all respects for all of the code used other
1116 than "OpenSSL". If you modify this file, you may extend
1117 this exception to your version of the file, but you are
1118 not obligated to do so. If you do not wish to do so,
1119 delete this exception statement from your version.
1121 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be
1122 useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
1123 warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
1124 PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more
1127 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
1128 License along with this package; if not, write to the Free
1129 Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor,
1130 Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
1132 On Debian systems, the full text of the GNU General Public
1133 License version 2 can be found in the file
1134 `/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-2'.</programlisting>
1141 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/">SPDX</ulink> is an attempt to standardize
1142 a format for communicating the components, licenses and copyrights
1143 associated with a software package. It and the machine-readable
1144 <filename>debian/copyright</filename> format attempt to be somewhat
1145 compatible. However, the two formats have different aims, and so the
1146 formats are different. The <ulink
1147 url="http://wiki.debian.org/Proposals/CopyrightFormat">DEP5 wiki
1148 page</ulink> will be used to track the differences.
1153 <section id="examples">
1154 <title>Examples</title>
1156 <title>Simple</title>
1158 A possible <filename>debian/copyright</filename> file for the program
1159 <quote>X Solitaire</quote> distributed in the Debian source package
1160 <literal>xsol</literal>:
1161 <programlisting><![CDATA[Format: http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/
1162 Upstream-Name: X Solitaire
1163 Source: ftp://ftp.example.com/pub/games
1166 Copyright: Copyright 1998 John Doe <jdoe@example.com>
1168 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
1169 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
1170 License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
1171 version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
1174 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be
1175 useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
1176 warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
1177 PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more
1180 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
1181 License along with this package; if not, write to the Free
1182 Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor,
1183 Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
1185 On Debian systems, the full text of the GNU General Public
1186 License version 2 can be found in the file
1187 `/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-2'.
1190 Copyright: Copyright 1998 Jane Smith <jsmith@example.net>
1192 [LICENSE TEXT]]]></programlisting>
1197 <title>Complex</title>
1199 A possible <filename>debian/copyright</filename> file for the program
1200 <quote>Planet Venus</quote>, distributed in the Debian source
1201 package <literal>planet-venus</literal>:
1202 <programlisting><![CDATA[Format: http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/
1203 Upstream-Name: Planet Venus
1204 Upstream-Contact: John Doe <jdoe@example.com>
1205 Source: http://www.example.com/code/venus
1208 Copyright: 2008, John Doe <jdoe@example.com>
1209 2007, Jane Smith <jsmith@example.org>
1210 2007, Joe Average <joe@example.org>
1211 2007, J. Random User <jr@users.example.com>
1216 Copyright: 2008, Dan Developer <dan@debian.example.com>
1218 Copying and distribution of this package, with or without
1219 modification, are permitted in any medium without royalty
1220 provided the copyright notice and this notice are
1223 Files: debian/patches/theme-diveintomark.patch
1224 Copyright: 2008, Joe Hacker <hack@example.org>
1228 Files: planet/vendor/compat_logging/*
1229 Copyright: 2002, Mark Smith <msmith@example.org>
1233 Files: planet/vendor/httplib2/*
1234 Copyright: 2006, John Brown <brown@example.org>
1236 Unspecified MIT style license.
1238 Files: planet/vendor/feedparser.py
1239 Copyright: 2007, Mike Smith <mike@example.org>
1243 Files: planet/vendor/htmltmpl.py
1244 Copyright: 2004, Thomas Brown <coder@example.org>
1246 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
1247 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
1248 License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
1249 version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
1252 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be
1253 useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
1254 warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
1255 PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more
1258 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
1259 License along with this package; if not, write to the Free
1260 Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor,
1261 Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
1263 On Debian systems, the full text of the GNU General Public
1264 License version 2 can be found in the file
1265 `/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-2'.]]></programlisting>