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13 <article class="specification" status="draft" lang="en" id="copyright-format">
16 Machine-readable <filename>debian/copyright</filename> file.
18 <subtitle>Version 1.0</subtitle>
21 Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification, are
22 permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright notice
23 and this notice are preserved.
28 Establish a standard, machine-readable format for
29 <filename>debian/copyright</filename> files within packages and to
30 facilitate automated checking and reporting of licenses for packages
36 <section id="introduction">
37 <title>Introduction</title>
39 This is a proposal to make <filename>debian/copyright</filename>
40 machine-interpretable. This file is one of the most important files in
41 Debian packaging, yet there is currently no standard format defined for it
42 and its contents vary tremendously across packages, making it difficult to
43 automatically extract licensing information.
46 Use of this specification is optional.
49 Nothing in this proposal supersedes or modifies any of the
50 requirements specified in Debian Policy regarding the appropriate detail
51 or granularity to use when documenting copyright and license status in
52 <filename>debian/copyright</filename>.
56 <section id="rationale">
57 <title>Rationale</title>
59 The diversity of free software licenses means that Debian needs to care
60 not only about the freeness of a given work, but also its license's
61 compatibility with the other parts of Debian it uses.
64 The arrival of the GPL version 3, its incompatibility with version 2, and
65 our inability to spot the software where the incompatibility might be
66 problematic is one prominent occurrence of this limitation.
69 There are earlier precedents, also. One is the GPL/OpenSSL
70 incompatibility. Apart from grepping
71 <filename>debian/copyright</filename>, which is prone to numerous false
72 positives (packaging under the GPL but software under another license) or
73 negatives (GPL software but with an <quote>OpenSSL special
74 exception</quote> dual licensing form), there is no reliable way to know
75 which software in Debian might be problematic.
78 And there is more to come. There are issues with shipping GPLv2-only
79 software with a CDDL operating system such as Nexenta. The GPL version 3
80 solves this issue, but not all GPL software can switch to it and we have
81 no way to know how much of Debian should be stripped from such a system.
84 Even where licenses are DFSG-free and mutually compatible, users might want
85 a way to avoid software with certain licenses, for example if they have a
86 problem with the Affero GPL.
90 <section id="acknowledgements">
91 <title>Acknowledgements</title>
93 Many people have worked on this specification over the years. The
94 following alphabetical list is incomplete, please suggest missing people:
106 <section id="file-syntax">
107 <title>File syntax</title>
109 The <filename>debian/copyright</filename> file must be
110 machine-interpretable, yet human-readable, while communicating all
111 mandated upstream information, copyright notices and licensing details.
114 The syntax of the file is the same as for other Debian control files, as
115 specified in the Debian Policy Manual. See its <ulink
116 url="http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-controlfields#s-controlsyntax">section
117 5.1</ulink> for details. Extra fields can be added to any paragraph. No
118 prefixing is necessary or desired, but please avoid names similar to
119 standard ones so that mistakes are easier to catch. Future versions of
120 the <filename>debian/copyright</filename> specification will attempt to
121 avoid conflicting specifications for widely used extra fields.
124 The file consists of two or more paragraphs. At minimum, the file
125 must include one <link linkend="header-paragraph">header
126 paragraph</link> and one <link linkend="files-paragraph">Files
130 There are four types of fields. The definition for each field in this
131 document indicates which type of value it takes.
134 <section id="single-line">
135 <title>Single-line values</title>
137 A single-line value means that the whole value of a field must fit
138 on a single line. For example, the <varname>Format</varname> field
139 has a single-line value specifying the version of the
140 machine-readable format that is used.
144 <section id="white-space-lists">
145 <title>Whitespace-separated lists</title>
147 A whitespace-separated list means that the field value may be on one
148 line or many, but values in the list are separated by one or more
149 whitespace characters (including space, TAB, and newline). For
150 example, the <varname>Files</varname> field has a list of filename
155 <section id="line-based-lists">
156 <title>Line-based lists</title>
158 This means that the field has one value per line. For example,
159 <varname>Upstream-Contact</varname> can list contact addresses, one per
164 <section id="formatted-text">
165 <title>Text formatted like package long descriptions</title>
167 Formatted text fields use the same rules as the long description in a
168 package's <varname>Description</varname> field, possibly also using the
169 first line as a synopsis, like <varname>Description</varname> uses it
170 for the 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> has no special
173 first line, whereas <varname>License</varname> does.
178 <section id="paragraphs">
179 <title>Paragraphs</title>
181 There are three kinds of paragraphs. The first paragraph in the file
182 is called the <link linkend="header-paragraph">header paragraph</link>.
183 Every other paragraph is either a <link
184 linkend="files-paragraph">Files paragraph</link> or a <link
185 linkend="stand-alone-license-paragraph">stand-alone License
186 paragraph</link>. This is similar to source and binary package
187 paragraphs in <filename>debian/control</filename> files.
190 <section id="header-paragraph">
191 <title>Header paragraph (once)</title>
193 The following fields may be present in a header paragraph.
198 <link linkend="format-field">Format</link>: required.
203 <link linkend="upstream-name-field">Upstream-Name</link>:
210 linkend="upstream-contact-field">Upstream-Contact</link>:
216 <link linkend="source-field">Source</link>: optional.
221 <link linkend="disclaimer-field">Disclaimer</link>:
227 <link linkend="comment-field">Comment</link>: optional.
232 <link linkend="license-field">License</link>: optional.
237 <link linkend="copyright-field">Copyright</link>: optional.
242 The <varname>Copyright</varname> and <varname>License</varname>
243 fields in the <emphasis>header paragraph</emphasis> may complement
244 but do not replace the <emphasis>Files paragraphs</emphasis>. They
245 can be used to summarise the contributions and redistribution terms
246 for the whole package, for instance when a work combines a
247 permissive and a copyleft license, or to document a
248 <emphasis>compilation copyright</emphasis> and license. It is
249 possible to use only <varname>License</varname> in the header
250 paragraph, but <varname>Copyright</varname> alone makes no sense.
253 <section id="example-header-paragraph">
254 <title>Example header paragraph</title>
255 <programlisting>Format: http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/
256 Upstream-Name: SOFTware
257 Upstream-Contact: John Doe <john.doe@example.com>
258 Source: http://www.example.com/software/project</programlisting>
262 <section id="files-paragraph">
263 <title>Files paragraph (repeatable)</title>
265 The declaration of copyright and license for files may consist of one or
266 more paragraphs. In the simplest case, a single paragraph can be used
267 which applies to the whole package. Only the license and copyright
268 information required by the Debian archive is required to be listed
272 The following fields may be present in a Files paragraph.
278 <link linkend="files-field">Files</link>: required.
283 <link linkend="copyright-field">Copyright</link>: required.
288 <link linkend="license-field">License</link>: required.
293 <link linkend="comment-field">Comment</link>: optional.
298 <section id="example-files-paragraph">
299 <title>Example files paragraphs</title>
300 <programlisting>Files: *
301 Copyright: 1975-2010 Ulla Upstream
305 Copyright: 2010 Daniela Debianizer
308 Files: debian/patches/fancy-feature
309 Copyright: 2010 Daniela Debianizer
313 Copyright: 2010 Manuela Manpager
314 License: GPL-2+</programlisting>
316 In this example, all files are copyright by the upstream and licensed
317 under the GPL, version 2 or later, with three exceptions. All the
318 Debian packaging files are copyright by the packager, and further one
319 specific file providing a new feature is licensed differently.
320 Finally, there are some manual pages added to the package, written by
326 <section id="stand-alone-license-paragraph">
327 <title>Stand-alone License Paragraph (optional, repeatable)</title>
329 Stand-alone <varname>License</varname> paragraphs can be used to
330 provide the full license text for a given license once, instead of
331 repeating it in each <varname>Files</varname> paragraph that refers to
332 it. The first line of the <varname>License</varname> field must be a
333 single license short name or a short name followed by a license
337 The following fields may be present in a stand-alone License
344 <link linkend="license-field">License</link>: required.
349 <link linkend="comment-field">Comment</link>: optional.
354 <title>tri-licensed files</title>
355 <programlisting>Files: src/js/editline/*
356 Copyright: 1993, John Doe
358 License: MPL-1.1 or GPL-2 or LGPL-2.1
367 [LICENSE TEXT]</programlisting>
371 <title>recurrent license</title>
372 <programlisting>Files: src/js/editline/*
373 Copyright: 1993, John Doe
377 Files: src/js/fdlibm/*
378 Copyright: 1993, J-Random Corporation
382 [LICENSE TEXT]</programlisting>
387 <section id="fields">
388 <title>Fields</title>
390 The following fields are defined for use in
391 <filename>debian/copyright</filename>.
394 <section id="format-field">
395 <title><varname>Format</varname></title>
397 Single-line: URI of the format specification, such as:
398 <literal>http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/</literal>.
402 <section id="upstream-name-field">
403 <title><varname>Upstream-Name</varname></title>
405 Single-line: the name upstream uses for the software
409 <section id="upstream-contact-field">
410 <title><varname>Upstream-Contact</varname></title>
412 Line-based list: the preferred address(es) to reach the upstream
413 project. May be free-form text, but by convention will usually be
414 written as a list of RFC5322 addresses or URIs.
418 <section id="source-field">
419 <title><varname>Source</varname></title>
421 Formatted text, no synopsis: an explanation of where the upstream
422 source came from. Typically this would be a URL, but it might be a
423 free-form explanation. The Debian Policy section <ulink
424 url="http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-docs#s-copyrightfile">12.5</ulink>
425 requires this information unless there are no upstream sources,
426 which is mainly the case for native Debian packages. If the
427 upstream source has been modified to remove non-free parts, that
428 should be explained in this field.
432 <section id="disclaimer-field">
433 <title><varname>Disclaimer</varname></title>
435 Formatted text, no synopsis: this field can be used in the case of
436 non-free and contrib packages (see <ulink
437 url="http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-docs#s-copyrightfile">12.5</ulink>).
441 <section id="comment-field">
442 <title><varname>Comment</varname></title>
444 Formatted text, no synopsis: this field can provide additional
445 information. For example, it might quote an e-mail from upstream
446 justifying why the license is acceptable to the main archive, or an
447 explanation of how this version of the package has been forked from
448 a version known to be DFSG-free, even though the current upstream
453 <section id="license-field">
454 <title><varname>License</varname></title>
456 Formatted text, with synopsis. In the header paragraph, this field
457 gives the license information for the package as a whole, which may
458 be different or simplified from a combination of all the per-file
459 license information. In a Files paragraph, this field gives the
460 licensing terms for the files listed in the <varname>Files</varname>
461 field for this paragraph. In a stand-alone License paragraph, it
462 gives the licensing terms for those paragraphs which reference it.
465 First line: an abbreviated name for the license, or expression
466 giving alternatives (see <link linkend="license-short-name">Short
467 names</link> section for a list of standard abbreviations). If
468 there are licenses present in the package without a standard short
469 name, an arbitrary short name may be assigned for these licenses.
470 These arbitrary names are only guaranteed to be unique within a
471 single copyright file.
474 If there are no remaining lines, then all of the short names
475 or short names followed by license exceptions making up the
476 first line must be described in <link
477 linkend="stand-alone-license-paragraph">stand-alone License
478 paragraphs</link>. Otherwise, this field should either
479 include the full text of the license(s) or include a pointer to the
480 license file under <filename>/usr/share/common-licenses</filename>.
481 This field should include all text needed in order to fulfill both
482 Debian Policy's requirement for including a copy of the software's
483 distribution license (<ulink
484 url="http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-docs#s-copyrightfile">12.5</ulink>),
485 and any license requirements to include warranty disclaimers or
486 other notices with the binary package.
490 <section id="copyright-field">
491 <title><varname>Copyright</varname></title>
493 Formatted text, no synopsis: one or more free-form copyright
494 statement(s). Any formatting is permitted; see the examples below
495 for some ideas for how to structure the field to make it easier to
496 read. In the header paragraph, this field gives the copyright
497 information for the package as a whole, which may be different or
498 simplified from a combination of all the per-file copyright
499 information. In the Files paragraphs, it gives the copyright
500 information that applies to the files matched by the
501 <varname>Files</varname> pattern. If a work has no copyright holder
502 (i.e., it is in the public domain), that information should be
506 The <varname>Copyright</varname> field collects all relevant
507 copyright notices for the files of this paragraph. Not all
508 copyright notices may apply to every individual file, and years of
509 publication for one copyright holder may be gathered together. For
510 example, if file A has:
511 <programlisting>Copyright 2008 John Smith
512 Copyright 2009 Angela Watts</programlisting>
514 <programlisting>Copyright 2010 Angela Watts</programlisting>
515 then the <varname>Copyright</varname> field for a paragraph covering both
516 file A and file B only needs to contain:
517 <programlisting>Copyright 2008 John Smith
518 Copyright 2009, 2010 Angela Watts</programlisting>
521 The <varname>Copyright</varname> field may contain the original
522 copyright statement copied exactly (including the word
523 <quote>Copyright</quote>), or it can shorten the text, as long as it
524 does not sacrifice information. Examples in this specification use
529 <section id="files-field">
530 <title><varname>Files</varname></title>
532 Whitespace-separated list: list of patterns indicating files covered
533 by the license and copyright specified in this paragraph.
536 Filename patterns in the <varname>Files</varname> field are
537 specified using a simplified shell glob syntax. Patterns are
538 separated by whitespace.
542 Only the wildcards <literal>*</literal> and <literal>?</literal>
543 apply; the former matches any number of characters (including
544 none), the latter a single character. Both match a slash
545 (<literal>/</literal>) and a leading dot.
550 Patterns match pathnames that start at the root of the source
551 tree. Thus, <quote><filename>Makefile.in</filename></quote>
552 matches only the file at the root of the tree, but
553 <quote><filename>*/Makefile.in</filename></quote> matches at
559 The backslash (<literal>\</literal>) is used to remove the
560 magic from the next character; see table below.
568 <entry>Escape sequence</entry>
569 <entry>Matches</entry>
574 <entry><literal>\*</literal></entry>
575 <entry>star (asterisk)</entry>
578 <entry><literal>\?</literal></entry>
579 <entry>question mark</entry>
582 <entry><literal>\\</literal></entry>
583 <entry>backslash</entry>
588 Any other character following a backslash is an error.
591 Multiple <varname>Files</varname> paragraphs are allowed. The last
592 paragraph that matches a particular file applies to it.
595 Exclusions are only supported by adding <varname>Files</varname>
596 paragraphs to override the previous match.
601 <section id="license-specification">
602 <title>License specification</title>
604 <section id="license-short-name">
605 <title>Short name</title>
607 Much of the value of a machine-parseable copyright file lies in being
608 able to correlate the licenses of multiple pieces of software. To that
609 end, this spec defines standard short names for a number of commonly
610 used licenses, which can be used in the first line of a
611 <varname>License</varname> field.
614 These short names have the specified meanings across all uses of this
615 file format, and <emphasis>must not</emphasis> be used to refer to any
616 other licenses. Parsers may thus rely on these short names referring to
617 the same licenses wherever they occur, without needing to parse or
618 compare the full license text.
621 From time to time, licenses may be added to or removed from the list of
622 standard short names. Such changes in the list of short names will
623 always be accompanied by changes to the recommended
624 <varname>Format</varname> value. Implementers who are parsing copyright
625 files should take care not to assume anything about the meaning of
626 license short names for unknown <varname>Format</varname> versions.
629 Use of a standard short name does not override the Debian Policy
630 requirement to include the full license text in
631 <filename>debian/copyright</filename>, nor any requirements in the
632 license of the work regarding reproduction of legal notices. This
633 information must still be included in the <varname>License</varname>
634 field, either in a stand-alone License paragraph or in the relevant
638 For licenses which have multiple versions in use, the version number is
639 added, using a dash as a separator. If omitted, the lowest version
640 number is implied. When the license grant permits using the terms of any
641 later version of that license, the short name is finished with a plus
642 sign. For <link linkend="spdx">SPDX</link> compatibility, versions with trailing
643 <emphasis>dot-zeroes</emphasis> are considered to be equivalent to
644 versions without (e.g., <quote>2.0.0</quote> is considered equal to
645 <quote>2.0</quote> and <quote>2</quote>).
648 Currently, the full text of the licenses is only available in the <ulink
649 url="http://spdx.org/licenses">SPDX Open Source License Registry</ulink>.
655 <entry>Keyword</entry>
656 <entry>Meaning</entry>
661 <entry>public-domain</entry>
663 No license required for any purpose; the work is not subject to
664 copyright in any jurisdiction.
673 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/Apache-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
674 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/Apache-2.0">2.0</ulink>.
683 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/Artistic-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
684 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/Artistic-2.0">2.0</ulink>.
692 Berkeley software distribution license,
693 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/BSD-2-Clause">2-clause
702 Berkeley software distribution license,
703 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/BSD-3-Clause">3-clause
712 Berkeley software distribution license,
713 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/BSD-4-Clause">4-clause
722 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/ISC">Internet Software
723 Consortium</ulink>, sometimes also known as the OpenBSD License.
731 Creative Commons Attribution license
732 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
733 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
734 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-2.5">2.5</ulink>,
735 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-3.0">3.0</ulink>.
743 Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike license
744 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-SA-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
745 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-SA-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
746 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-SA-2.5">2.5</ulink>,
747 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-SA-3.0">3.0</ulink>.
755 Creative Commons Attribution No Derivatives license
756 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-ND-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
757 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-ND-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
758 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-ND-2.5">2.5</ulink>,
759 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-ND-3.0">3.0</ulink>.
767 Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial license
768 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
769 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
770 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-2.5">2.5</ulink>,
771 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-3.0">3.0</ulink>.
779 Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license
780 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-SA-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
781 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-SA-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
782 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-SA-2.5">2.5</ulink>,
783 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-SA-3.0">3.0</ulink>.
791 Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives license
792 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-ND-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
793 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-ND-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
794 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-ND-2.5">2.5</ulink>,
795 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-ND-3.0">3.0</ulink>.
803 Creative Commons Zero
804 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC0-1.0">1.0 Universal</ulink>.
812 Common Development and Distribution License
813 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CDDL-1.0">1.0</ulink>.
821 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CPL-1.0">IBM Common Public
830 The Eiffel Forum License
831 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/EFL-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
832 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/EFL-2.0">2.0</ulink>.
840 The <ulink url="http://www.jclark.com/xml/copying.txt">Expat</ulink>
849 GNU General Public License
850 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/GPL-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
851 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/GPL-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
852 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/GPL-3.0">3.0</ulink>.
860 GNU Lesser General Public License
861 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/LGPL-2.1">2.1</ulink>,
862 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/LGPL-3.0">3.0</ulink>, or
863 GNU Library General Public License
864 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/LGPL-2.0">2.0</ulink>.
872 GNU Free Documentation License 1.0, or
873 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/GFDL-1.1">1.1</ulink>.
881 GNU Free Documentation License, with no invariant sections.
889 <ulink url="http://www.latex-project.org/lppl/">LaTeX Project
890 Public License</ulink>
891 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/LPPL-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
892 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/LPPL-1.1">1.1</ulink>,
893 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/LPPL-1.2">1.2</ulink>,
894 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/LPPL-1.3c">1.3c</ulink>.
902 Mozilla Public License
903 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/MPL-1.1">1.1</ulink>.
911 <ulink url="http://dev.perl.org/licenses/">Perl</ulink> license
912 (use <quote><literal>GPL-1+ or Artistic-1</literal></quote>
922 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/Python-2.0">2.0</ulink>.
924 <!-- See https://fossbazaar.org/pipermail/spdx-legal/2011-February/000010.html -->
931 Q Public License <ulink
932 url="http://spdx.org/licenses/QPL-1.0">1.0</ulink>.
940 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/W3C">W3C Software
941 License</ulink> For more information, consult the
943 url="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/IPR-FAQ-20000620">W3C
944 Intellectual Rights FAQ</ulink>.
952 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/Zlib">
953 zlib/libpng license</ulink>.
961 Zope Public License 1.0,
962 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/ZPL-1.1">1.1</ulink>,
963 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/ZPL-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
964 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/ZPL-2.1">2.1</ulink>.
972 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_License#Various_versions">many
973 versions of the MIT license</ulink>. Please use Expat instead, when it
977 An exception or clarification to a license is signaled in plain text, by appending
978 <literal>with <varname><replaceable>keywords</replaceable></varname>
979 exception</literal> to the short name. This document provides a list of
980 keywords that must be used when referring to the most frequent
981 exceptions. When exceptions other than these are in effect that modify
982 a common license by granting additional permissions, you may use an
983 arbitrary keyword not taken from the below list of keywords. When a
984 license differs from a common license because of added restrictions
985 rather than because of added permissions, a distinct short name should
986 be used instead of <literal>with
987 <varname><replaceable>keywords</replaceable></varname>
991 Only one exception may be specified for each license within a given
992 license specification. If more than one exception applies to a single
993 license, an arbitrary short name must be used instead.
996 The GPL <literal>Font</literal> exception refers to the text added to the
997 license notice of each file as specified at <ulink
998 url="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq#FontException">How does the GPL
999 apply to fonts</ulink>. The precise text corresponding to this
1001 <programlisting>As a special exception, if you create a document which uses this font,
1002 and embed this font or unaltered portions of this font into the
1003 document, this font does not by itself cause the resulting document to
1004 be covered by the GNU General Public License. This exception does not
1005 however invalidate any other reasons why the document might be covered
1006 by the GNU General Public License. If you modify this font, you may
1007 extend this exception to your version of the font, but you are not
1008 obligated to do so. If you do not wish to do so, delete this exception
1009 statement from your version.</programlisting>
1012 The GPL <literal>OpenSSL</literal> exception gives permission to link GPL-licensed
1013 code with the OpenSSL library, which contains GPL-incompatible clauses.
1014 For more information, see <ulink
1015 url="http://www.gnome.org/~markmc/openssl-and-the-gpl">The -OpenSSL License and
1016 The GPL</ulink> by Mark
1017 McLoughlin and the message <ulink
1018 url="http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2004/05/msg00595.html">middleman
1019 software license conflicts with OpenSSL</ulink>
1020 by Mark McLoughlin on the <emphasis>debian-legal</emphasis> mailing list. The text corresponding
1021 to this exception is:
1022 <programlisting>In addition, as a special exception, the copyright holders give
1023 permission to link the code of portions of this program with the
1024 OpenSSL library under certain conditions as described in each
1025 individual source file, and distribute linked combinations including
1028 You must obey the GNU General Public License in all respects for all
1029 of the code used other than OpenSSL. If you modify file(s) with this
1030 exception, you may extend this exception to your version of the
1031 file(s), but you are not obligated to do so. If you do not wish to do
1032 so, delete this exception statement from your version. If you delete
1033 this exception statement from all source files in the program, then
1034 also delete it here.</programlisting>
1037 <section id="public-domain">
1038 <title>Public domain</title>
1040 The <varname>License</varname> short name
1041 <literal>public-domain</literal> does not refer to a set of license
1042 terms. There are some works which are not subject to copyright in
1043 any jurisdiction and therefore no license is required for any
1044 purpose covered by copyright law. This short name is an explicit
1045 declaration that the associated files are <quote>in the public
1049 Widespread misunderstanding about copyright in general, and the
1050 public domain in particular, results in the common assertion that a
1051 work is in the public domain when this is partly or wholly untrue
1052 for that work. The <ulink
1053 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain">Wikipedia article
1054 on public domain</ulink> is a useful reference for this subject.
1057 When the <varname>License</varname> field in a paragraph has the
1058 short name <literal>public-domain</literal>, the remaining lines of
1059 the field <emphasis>must</emphasis> explain exactly what exemption
1060 the corresponding files for that paragraph have from default
1061 copyright restrictions.
1066 <section id="license-syntax">
1067 <title>Syntax</title>
1069 License names are case-insensitive, and may not contain spaces.
1072 In case of multi-licensing, the license short names are separated by
1073 <literal>or</literal> when the user can chose between different licenses,
1074 and by <literal>and</literal> when use of the work must simultaneously
1075 comply with the terms of multiple licenses.
1078 For instance, this is a simple, <quote>GPL version 2 or later</quote>
1080 <programlisting>License: GPL-2+</programlisting>
1081 This is a dual-licensed GPL/Artistic work such as Perl:
1082 <programlisting>License: GPL-1+ or Artistic</programlisting>
1083 This is for a file that has both GPL and classic BSD code in it:
1084 <programlisting>License: GPL-2+ and BSD-3-clause</programlisting>
1085 For the most complex cases, a comma is used to disambiguate the
1086 priority of <literal>or</literal>s and <literal>and</literal>s.
1087 The conjunction <quote><literal>and</literal></quote> has priority over
1088 <quote><literal>or</literal></quote> unless preceded by a comma. For
1092 <literal>A or B and C</literal> means <literal>A or (B and C)</literal>.
1095 <literal>A or B, and C</literal> means <literal>(A or B) and
1099 This is for a file that has Perl code and classic BSD code in it:
1100 <programlisting>License: GPL-2+ or Artistic-2.0, and BSD-3-clause</programlisting>
1101 A <literal>GPL-2+</literal> work with the <literal>OpenSSL</literal>
1102 exception is in effect a dual-licensed work that can be redistributed
1103 either under the <literal>GPL-2+</literal>, or under the
1104 <literal>GPL-2+</literal> with the <literal>OpenSSL</literal> exception.
1105 It is thus expressed as <literal>GPL-2+ with OpenSSL
1106 exception</literal>:
1107 <programlisting>License: GPL-2+ with OpenSSL exception
1108 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
1109 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
1110 License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
1111 version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
1114 In addition, as a special exception, the author of this
1115 program gives permission to link the code of its
1116 release with the OpenSSL project's "OpenSSL" library (or
1117 with modified versions of it that use the same license as
1118 the "OpenSSL" library), and distribute the linked
1119 executables. You must obey the GNU General Public
1120 License in all respects for all of the code used other
1121 than "OpenSSL". If you modify this file, you may extend
1122 this exception to your version of the file, but you are
1123 not obligated to do so. If you do not wish to do so,
1124 delete this exception statement from your version.
1126 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be
1127 useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
1128 warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
1129 PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more
1132 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
1133 License along with this package; if not, write to the Free
1134 Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor,
1135 Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
1137 On Debian systems, the full text of the GNU General Public
1138 License version 2 can be found in the file
1139 `/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-2'.</programlisting>
1146 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/">SPDX</ulink> is an attempt to standardize
1147 a format for communicating the components, licenses and copyrights
1148 associated with a software package. It and the machine-readable
1149 <filename>debian/copyright</filename> format attempt to be somewhat
1150 compatible. However, the two formats have different aims, and so the
1151 formats are different. The <ulink
1152 url="http://wiki.debian.org/Proposals/CopyrightFormat">DEP5 wiki
1153 page</ulink> will be used to track the differences.
1158 <section id="examples">
1159 <title>Examples</title>
1161 <title>Simple</title>
1163 A possible <filename>debian/copyright</filename> file for the program
1164 <quote>X Solitaire</quote> distributed in the Debian source package
1165 <literal>xsol</literal>:
1166 <programlisting><![CDATA[Format: http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/
1167 Upstream-Name: X Solitaire
1168 Source: ftp://ftp.example.com/pub/games
1171 Copyright: Copyright 1998 John Doe <jdoe@example.com>
1173 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
1174 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
1175 License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
1176 version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
1179 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be
1180 useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
1181 warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
1182 PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more
1185 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
1186 License along with this package; if not, write to the Free
1187 Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor,
1188 Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
1190 On Debian systems, the full text of the GNU General Public
1191 License version 2 can be found in the file
1192 `/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-2'.
1195 Copyright: Copyright 1998 Jane Smith <jsmith@example.net>
1197 [LICENSE TEXT]]]></programlisting>
1202 <title>Complex</title>
1204 A possible <filename>debian/copyright</filename> file for the program
1205 <quote>Planet Venus</quote>, distributed in the Debian source
1206 package <literal>planet-venus</literal>:
1207 <programlisting><![CDATA[Format: http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/
1208 Upstream-Name: Planet Venus
1209 Upstream-Contact: John Doe <jdoe@example.com>
1210 Source: http://www.example.com/code/venus
1213 Copyright: 2008, John Doe <jdoe@example.com>
1214 2007, Jane Smith <jsmith@example.org>
1215 2007, Joe Average <joe@example.org>
1216 2007, J. Random User <jr@users.example.com>
1221 Copyright: 2008, Dan Developer <dan@debian.example.com>
1223 Copying and distribution of this package, with or without
1224 modification, are permitted in any medium without royalty
1225 provided the copyright notice and this notice are
1228 Files: debian/patches/theme-diveintomark.patch
1229 Copyright: 2008, Joe Hacker <hack@example.org>
1233 Files: planet/vendor/compat_logging/*
1234 Copyright: 2002, Mark Smith <msmith@example.org>
1238 Files: planet/vendor/httplib2/*
1239 Copyright: 2006, John Brown <brown@example.org>
1241 Unspecified MIT style license.
1243 Files: planet/vendor/feedparser.py
1244 Copyright: 2007, Mike Smith <mike@example.org>
1248 Files: planet/vendor/htmltmpl.py
1249 Copyright: 2004, Thomas Brown <coder@example.org>
1251 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
1252 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
1253 License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
1254 version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
1257 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be
1258 useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
1259 warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
1260 PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more
1263 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
1264 License along with this package; if not, write to the Free
1265 Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor,
1266 Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
1268 On Debian systems, the full text of the GNU General Public
1269 License version 2 can be found in the file
1270 `/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-2'.]]></programlisting>