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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 Establishes a standard, machine-readable format for
29 <filename>debian/copyright</filename> files within Debian packages
30 to facilitate automated checking and reporting of licenses for
31 packages and sets of packages. This specification was originally
33 <ulink url="http://dep.debian.net/deps/dep5/">DEP-5</ulink>.
38 <section id="introduction">
39 <title>Introduction</title>
41 This document describes a standard, machine-interpretable format for
42 the <filename>debian/copyright</filename> file. This file is one of
43 the most important files in Debian packaging, but, prior to this
44 specification, no standard format was defined for it and its
45 contents varied tremendously across packages. This made it
46 difficult to automatically extract licensing information.
49 Use of this specification is optional.
52 Nothing in this proposal supersedes or modifies any of the
53 requirements specified in Debian Policy regarding the appropriate detail
54 or granularity to use when documenting copyright and license status in
55 <filename>debian/copyright</filename>.
59 <section id="rationale">
60 <title>Rationale</title>
62 The diversity of free software licenses means that Debian needs to care
63 not only about the freeness of a given work, but also its license's
64 compatibility with the other parts of Debian it uses.
67 The arrival of the GPL version 3, its incompatibility with version 2, and
68 our inability to spot the software where the incompatibility might be
69 problematic is one prominent occurrence of this limitation.
72 There are earlier precedents, also. One is the GPL/OpenSSL
73 incompatibility. Apart from grepping
74 <filename>debian/copyright</filename>, which is prone to numerous false
75 positives (packaging under the GPL but software under another license) or
76 negatives (GPL software but with an <quote>OpenSSL special
77 exception</quote> dual licensing form), there is no reliable way to know
78 which software in Debian might be problematic.
81 And there is more to come. There are issues with shipping GPLv2-only
82 software with a CDDL operating system such as Nexenta. The GPL version 3
83 solves this issue, but not all GPL software can switch to it and we have
84 no way to know how much of Debian should be stripped from such a system.
87 Even where licenses are DFSG-free and mutually compatible, users may
88 wish a way to identify software under certain licenses (for example,
89 if they have a problem with the Affero GPL).
93 <section id="acknowledgements">
94 <title>Acknowledgements</title>
96 Many people have worked on this specification over the years. The
97 following alphabetical list is incomplete; please suggest missing people:
109 <section id="file-syntax">
110 <title>File syntax</title>
112 The <filename>debian/copyright</filename> file must be
113 machine-interpretable, yet human-readable, while communicating all
114 mandated upstream information, copyright notices and licensing details.
117 The syntax of the file is the same as for other Debian control files, as
118 specified in the Debian Policy Manual. See its <ulink
119 url="http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-controlfields#s-controlsyntax">section
120 5.1</ulink> for details. Extra fields can be added to any paragraph. No
121 prefixing is necessary or desired, but please avoid names similar to
122 standard ones so that mistakes are easier to catch. Future versions of
123 the <filename>debian/copyright</filename> specification will attempt to
124 avoid conflicting specifications for widely used extra fields.
127 The file consists of two or more paragraphs. At minimum, the file
128 must include one <link linkend="header-paragraph">header
129 paragraph</link> and one <link linkend="files-paragraph">Files
133 There are four types of fields. The definition for each field in this
134 document indicates which type of value it takes.
137 <section id="single-line">
138 <title>Single-line values</title>
140 The entire value of a single-line field must be on a single line.
141 For example, the <varname>Format</varname> field has a single-line
142 value specifying the version of the machine-readable format that
147 <section id="white-space-lists">
148 <title>Whitespace-separated lists</title>
150 Field values defined as whitespace-separated lists may be on one
151 line or many. Values in the list are separated by one or more
152 whitespace characters (space, tab, or newline). For example, the
153 <varname>Files</varname> field contains a whitespace-separated
154 list of filename patterns.
158 <section id="line-based-lists">
159 <title>Line-based lists</title>
161 Line-based lists have one value per line. For example, the
162 <varname>Upstream-Contact</varname> field contains a line-based
163 list of contact addresses.
167 <section id="formatted-text">
168 <title>Formatted text</title>
170 Formatted text fields use the same rules as the long description
171 in a package's <varname>Description</varname> field in Debian
172 control files. In some but not all cases, the first line may have
173 special meaning as a synopsis, similar to how the
174 <varname>Description</varname> field uses it for the short
175 description. See Debian Policy's section 5.6.13, <ulink
176 url="http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-controlfields#s-f-Description"><quote>Description</quote></ulink>,
177 for details. For example, <varname>Disclaimer</varname> is a
178 formatted text field that has no special first line, and
179 <varname>License</varname> is a formatted text field where the
180 first line indicates the short name or names of the licenses.
185 <section id="paragraphs">
186 <title>Paragraphs</title>
188 There are three kinds of paragraphs. The first paragraph in the file
189 is called the <link linkend="header-paragraph">header paragraph</link>.
190 Every other paragraph is either a <link
191 linkend="files-paragraph">Files paragraph</link> or a <link
192 linkend="stand-alone-license-paragraph">stand-alone License
193 paragraph</link>. This is similar to source and binary package
194 paragraphs in <filename>debian/control</filename> files.
197 <section id="header-paragraph">
198 <title>Header paragraph (once)</title>
200 The following fields may be present in a header paragraph.
205 <link linkend="format-field">Format</link>: required.
210 <link linkend="upstream-name-field">Upstream-Name</link>:
217 linkend="upstream-contact-field">Upstream-Contact</link>:
223 <link linkend="source-field">Source</link>: optional.
228 <link linkend="disclaimer-field">Disclaimer</link>:
234 <link linkend="comment-field">Comment</link>: optional.
239 <link linkend="license-field">License</link>: optional.
244 <link linkend="copyright-field">Copyright</link>: optional.
249 The <varname>Copyright</varname> and <varname>License</varname>
250 fields in the <emphasis>header paragraph</emphasis> may complement
251 but do not replace the <emphasis>Files paragraphs</emphasis>. They
252 can be used to summarise the copyright notices or redistribution terms
253 for the whole package, such as when a work combines a
254 permissive and a copyleft license and the combination requires
255 some clarification, or to document a
256 <emphasis>compilation copyright</emphasis> and license. It is
257 possible to use only <varname>License</varname> in the header
258 paragraph, but <varname>Copyright</varname> alone makes no sense.
261 <section id="example-header-paragraph">
262 <title>Example header paragraph</title>
263 <programlisting>Format: http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/
264 Upstream-Name: SOFTware
265 Upstream-Contact: John Doe <john.doe@example.com>
266 Source: http://www.example.com/software/project</programlisting>
270 <section id="files-paragraph">
271 <title>Files paragraph (repeatable)</title>
273 The declaration of copyright and license for files may consist of
274 one or more paragraphs. In the simplest case, a single paragraph
275 with <literal>Files: *</literal> can be used to state the license
276 and copyright for the whole package. Only the license and
277 copyright information required by the Debian archive is required
281 The following fields may be present in a Files paragraph.
287 <link linkend="files-field">Files</link>: required.
292 <link linkend="copyright-field">Copyright</link>: required.
297 <link linkend="license-field">License</link>: required.
302 <link linkend="comment-field">Comment</link>: optional.
307 <section id="example-files-paragraph">
308 <title>Example files paragraphs</title>
309 <programlisting>Files: *
310 Copyright: 1975-2010 Ulla Upstream
314 Copyright: 2010 Daniela Debianizer
317 Files: debian/patches/fancy-feature
318 Copyright: 2010 Daniela Debianizer
322 Copyright: 2010 Manuela Manpager
323 License: GPL-2+</programlisting>
325 In this example, all files are copyright by the upstream and licensed
326 under the GPL, version 2 or later, with three exceptions. All the
327 Debian packaging files are copyright by the packager, and further one
328 specific file providing a new feature is licensed differently.
329 Finally, there are some manual pages added to the package, written by
333 Since the license of the manual pages is the same as the other
334 files in the package, the last paragraph above could instead be
335 combined with the first paragraph, listing both copyright
336 statements in one <varname>Copyright</varname> field. Whether
337 to combine paragraphs with the same license is left to the
338 discretion of the author of the
339 <filename>debian/copyright</filename> file.
344 <section id="stand-alone-license-paragraph">
345 <title>Stand-alone License Paragraph (optional, repeatable)</title>
347 Stand-alone <varname>License</varname> paragraphs can be used to
348 provide the full license text for a given license once, instead of
349 repeating it in each <varname>Files</varname> paragraph that refers to
350 it. The first line of the <varname>License</varname> field must be a
351 single license short name or a short name followed by a license
355 The following fields may be present in a stand-alone License
362 <link linkend="license-field">License</link>: required.
367 <link linkend="comment-field">Comment</link>: optional.
372 <title>tri-licensed files</title>
373 <programlisting>Files: src/js/editline/*
374 Copyright: 1993, John Doe
376 License: MPL-1.1 or GPL-2 or LGPL-2.1
385 [LICENSE TEXT]</programlisting>
389 <title>recurrent license</title>
390 <programlisting>Files: src/js/editline/*
391 Copyright: 1993, John Doe
395 Files: src/js/fdlibm/*
396 Copyright: 1993, J-Random Corporation
400 [LICENSE TEXT]</programlisting>
405 <section id="fields">
406 <title>Fields</title>
408 The following fields are defined for use in
409 <filename>debian/copyright</filename>.
412 <section id="format-field">
413 <title><varname>Format</varname></title>
415 Single-line: URI of the format specification. The field that
416 should be used for the current version of this document is:
417 <programlisting>Format: http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/</programlisting>
421 <section id="upstream-name-field">
422 <title><varname>Upstream-Name</varname></title>
424 Single-line: the name upstream uses for the software
428 <section id="upstream-contact-field">
429 <title><varname>Upstream-Contact</varname></title>
431 Line-based list: the preferred address(es) to reach the upstream
432 project. May be free-form text, but by convention will usually be
433 written as a list of RFC5322 addresses or URIs.
437 <section id="source-field">
438 <title><varname>Source</varname></title>
440 Formatted text, no synopsis: an explanation of where the upstream
441 source came from. Typically this would be a URL, but it might be a
442 free-form explanation. The Debian Policy section <ulink
443 url="http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-docs#s-copyrightfile">12.5</ulink>
444 requires this information unless there are no upstream sources,
445 which is mainly the case for native Debian packages. If the
446 upstream source has been modified to remove non-free parts, that
447 should be explained in this field.
451 <section id="disclaimer-field">
452 <title><varname>Disclaimer</varname></title>
454 Formatted text, no synopsis: this field is used for non-free or
455 contrib packages to say that they are not part of Debian and to
456 explain why (see Debian Policy section <ulink
457 url="http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-docs#s-copyrightfile">12.5</ulink>).
461 <section id="comment-field">
462 <title><varname>Comment</varname></title>
464 Formatted text, no synopsis: this field can provide additional
465 information. For example, it might quote an e-mail from upstream
466 justifying why the license is acceptable to the main archive, or an
467 explanation of how this version of the package has been forked from
468 a version known to be DFSG-free, even though the current upstream
473 <section id="license-field">
474 <title><varname>License</varname></title>
476 Formatted text, with synopsis. In the header paragraph, this field
477 gives the license information for the package as a whole, which may
478 be different or simplified from a combination of all the per-file
479 license information. In a Files paragraph, this field gives the
480 licensing terms for the files listed in the <varname>Files</varname>
481 field for this paragraph. In a stand-alone License paragraph, it
482 gives the licensing terms for those paragraphs which reference it.
485 First line: an abbreviated name for the license, or expression
486 giving alternatives (see the <link linkend="license-short-name">Short
487 name</link> section for a list of standard abbreviations). If
488 there are licenses present in the package without a standard short
489 name, an arbitrary short name may be assigned for these licenses.
490 These arbitrary names are only guaranteed to be unique within a
491 single copyright file.
494 If there are no remaining lines, then all of the short names
495 or short names followed by license exceptions making up the
496 first line must be described in <link
497 linkend="stand-alone-license-paragraph">stand-alone License
498 paragraphs</link>. Otherwise, this field should either
499 include the full text of the license(s) or include a pointer to the
500 license file under <filename>/usr/share/common-licenses</filename>.
501 This field should include all text needed in order to fulfill both
502 Debian Policy's requirement for including a copy of the software's
503 distribution license (<ulink
504 url="http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-docs#s-copyrightfile">12.5</ulink>),
505 and any license requirements to include warranty disclaimers or
506 other notices with the binary package.
510 <section id="copyright-field">
511 <title><varname>Copyright</varname></title>
513 Formatted text, no synopsis: one or more free-form copyright
514 statements. Any formatting is permitted; see the examples below
515 for some ideas for how to structure the field to make it easier to
516 read. In the header paragraph, this field gives the copyright
517 information for the package as a whole, which may be different or
518 simplified from a combination of all the per-file copyright
519 information. In the Files paragraphs, it gives the copyright
520 information that applies to the files matched by the
521 <varname>Files</varname> pattern. If a work has no copyright holder
522 (i.e., it is in the public domain), that information should be
526 The <varname>Copyright</varname> field collects all relevant
527 copyright notices for the files of this paragraph. Not all
528 copyright notices may apply to every individual file, and years of
529 publication for one copyright holder may be gathered together. For
530 example, if file A has:
531 <programlisting>Copyright 2008 John Smith
532 Copyright 2009 Angela Watts</programlisting>
534 <programlisting>Copyright 2010 Angela Watts</programlisting>
535 a single paragraph may still be used for both files. The
536 <varname>Copyright</varname> field for that paragraph would
538 <programlisting>Copyright 2008 John Smith
539 Copyright 2009, 2010 Angela Watts</programlisting>
542 The <varname>Copyright</varname> field may contain the original
543 copyright statement copied exactly (including the word
544 <quote>Copyright</quote>), or it may shorten the text or merge it
545 with other copyright statements as described above, as long as it
546 does not sacrifice information. Examples in this specification use
551 <section id="files-field">
552 <title><varname>Files</varname></title>
554 Whitespace-separated list: list of patterns indicating files covered
555 by the license and copyright specified in this paragraph.
558 Filename patterns in the <varname>Files</varname> field are
559 specified using a simplified shell glob syntax. Patterns are
560 separated by whitespace.
564 Only the wildcards <literal>*</literal> and <literal>?</literal>
565 apply; the former matches any number of characters (including
566 none), the latter a single character. Both match slashs
567 (<literal>/</literal>) and leading dots, unlike shell globs.
568 The pattern <literal>*.in</literal> therefore matches any
569 file whose name ends in <literal>.in</literal> anywhere in
570 the source tree, not just at the top level.
575 Patterns match pathnames that start at the root of the source
576 tree. Thus, <quote><filename>Makefile.in</filename></quote>
577 matches only the file at the root of the tree, but
578 <quote><filename>*/Makefile.in</filename></quote> matches at
584 The backslash (<literal>\</literal>) is used to remove the
585 magic from the next character; see table below.
593 <entry>Escape sequence</entry>
594 <entry>Matches</entry>
599 <entry><literal>\*</literal></entry>
600 <entry>star (asterisk)</entry>
603 <entry><literal>\?</literal></entry>
604 <entry>question mark</entry>
607 <entry><literal>\\</literal></entry>
608 <entry>backslash</entry>
613 Any other character following a backslash is an error.
616 Multiple <varname>Files</varname> paragraphs are allowed. The last
617 paragraph that matches a particular file applies to it. More
618 general paragraphs should therefore be given first, followed by
619 more specific overrides.
622 Exclusions are only supported by adding <varname>Files</varname>
623 paragraphs to override the previous match.
628 <section id="license-specification">
629 <title>License specification</title>
631 <section id="license-short-name">
632 <title>Short name</title>
634 Much of the value of a machine-parseable copyright file lies in being
635 able to correlate the licenses of multiple pieces of software. To that
636 end, this spec defines standard short names for a number of commonly
637 used licenses, which can be used in the first line of a
638 <varname>License</varname> field.
641 These short names have the specified meanings across all uses of this
642 file format, and <emphasis>must not</emphasis> be used to refer to any
643 other licenses. Parsers may thus rely on these short names referring to
644 the same licenses wherever they occur, without needing to parse or
645 compare the full license text.
648 From time to time, licenses may be added to or removed from the list of
649 standard short names. Such changes in the list of short names will
650 always be accompanied by changes to the version of this standard
651 and to the recommended
652 <varname>Format</varname> value. Implementers who are parsing copyright
653 files should take care not to assume anything about the meaning of
654 license short names for unknown <varname>Format</varname> versions.
657 Use of a standard short name does not override the Debian Policy
658 requirement to include the full license text in
659 <filename>debian/copyright</filename>, nor any requirements in the
660 license of the work regarding reproduction of legal notices. This
661 information must still be included in the <varname>License</varname>
662 field, either in a stand-alone License paragraph or in the relevant
666 For licenses that have multiple versions in use, the short name is
667 formed from the general short name of the license family, followed
668 by a dash and the version number. If the version number is
669 omitted, the lowest version number is implied. When the license
670 grant permits using the terms of any later version of that
671 license, add a plus sign to the end of the short name. For
672 example, the short name <literal>GPL</literal> refers to the GPL
673 version 1 and is equivalent to <literal>GPL-1</literal>, although
674 the latter is clearer and therefore preferred. If the package may
675 be distributed under the GPL version 1 or any later version, use a
676 short name of <literal>GPL-1+</literal>.
679 For <link linkend="spdx">SPDX</link> compatibility, versions with trailing
680 <emphasis>dot-zeroes</emphasis> are considered to be equivalent to
681 versions without (e.g., <quote>2.0.0</quote> is considered equal to
682 <quote>2.0</quote> and <quote>2</quote>).
685 Currently, the full text of the licenses is only available in the <ulink
686 url="http://spdx.org/licenses">SPDX Open Source License Registry</ulink>.
692 <entry>Keyword</entry>
693 <entry>Meaning</entry>
698 <entry>public-domain</entry>
700 No license required for any purpose; the work is not subject to
701 copyright in any jurisdiction.
710 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/Apache-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
711 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/Apache-2.0">2.0</ulink>.
720 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/Artistic-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
721 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/Artistic-2.0">2.0</ulink>.
729 Berkeley software distribution license,
730 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/BSD-2-Clause">2-clause
739 Berkeley software distribution license,
740 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/BSD-3-Clause">3-clause
749 Berkeley software distribution license,
750 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/BSD-4-Clause">4-clause
759 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/ISC">Internet Software
760 Consortium</ulink>, sometimes also known as the OpenBSD License.
768 Creative Commons Attribution license
769 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
770 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
771 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-2.5">2.5</ulink>,
772 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-3.0">3.0</ulink>.
780 Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike license
781 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-SA-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
782 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-SA-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
783 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-SA-2.5">2.5</ulink>,
784 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-SA-3.0">3.0</ulink>.
792 Creative Commons Attribution No Derivatives license
793 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-ND-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
794 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-ND-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
795 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-ND-2.5">2.5</ulink>,
796 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-ND-3.0">3.0</ulink>.
804 Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial license
805 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
806 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
807 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-2.5">2.5</ulink>,
808 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-3.0">3.0</ulink>.
816 Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license
817 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-SA-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
818 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-SA-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
819 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-SA-2.5">2.5</ulink>,
820 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-SA-3.0">3.0</ulink>.
828 Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives license
829 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-ND-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
830 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-ND-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
831 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-ND-2.5">2.5</ulink>,
832 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-NC-ND-3.0">3.0</ulink>.
840 Creative Commons Zero
841 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CC0-1.0">1.0
842 Universal</ulink>. Omit <quote>Universal</quote> from the
843 license version when forming the short name.
851 Common Development and Distribution License
852 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CDDL-1.0">1.0</ulink>.
860 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/CPL-1.0">IBM Common Public
869 The Eiffel Forum License
870 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/EFL-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
871 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/EFL-2.0">2.0</ulink>.
879 The <ulink url="http://www.jclark.com/xml/copying.txt">Expat</ulink>
888 GNU General Public License
889 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/GPL-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
890 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/GPL-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
891 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/GPL-3.0">3.0</ulink>.
899 GNU Lesser General Public License
900 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/LGPL-2.1">2.1</ulink>,
901 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/LGPL-3.0">3.0</ulink>, or
902 GNU Library General Public License
903 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/LGPL-2.0">2.0</ulink>.
911 GNU Free Documentation License 1.0,
912 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/GFDL-1.1">1.1</ulink>,
913 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/GFDL-1.2">1.2</ulink>, or
914 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/GFDL-1.3">1.3</ulink>.
915 Use GFDL-NIV instead if there are no Front-Cover or
916 Back-Cover Texts or Invariant Sections.
924 GNU Free Documentation License, with no Front-Cover or
925 Back-Cover Texts or Invariant Sections. Use the same
926 version numbers as GFDL.
934 <ulink url="http://www.latex-project.org/lppl/">LaTeX Project
935 Public License</ulink>
936 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/LPPL-1.0">1.0</ulink>,
937 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/LPPL-1.1">1.1</ulink>,
938 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/LPPL-1.2">1.2</ulink>,
939 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/LPPL-1.3c">1.3c</ulink>.
947 Mozilla Public License
948 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/MPL-1.1">1.1</ulink>.
956 <ulink url="http://dev.perl.org/licenses/">Perl</ulink> license
957 (use <quote><literal>GPL-1+ or Artistic-1</literal></quote>
967 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/Python-2.0">2.0</ulink>.
969 <!-- See https://fossbazaar.org/pipermail/spdx-legal/2011-February/000010.html -->
976 Q Public License <ulink
977 url="http://spdx.org/licenses/QPL-1.0">1.0</ulink>.
985 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/W3C">W3C Software
986 License</ulink> For more information, consult the
988 url="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/IPR-FAQ-20000620">W3C
989 Intellectual Rights FAQ</ulink>.
997 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/Zlib">
998 zlib/libpng license</ulink>.
1006 Zope Public License 1.0,
1007 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/ZPL-1.1">1.1</ulink>,
1008 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/ZPL-2.0">2.0</ulink>,
1009 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/licenses/ZPL-2.1">2.1</ulink>.
1017 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_License#Various_versions">many
1018 versions of the MIT license</ulink>. Please use Expat instead, when it
1022 An exception or clarification to a license is signaled in plain text, by appending
1023 <literal>with <varname><replaceable>keywords</replaceable></varname>
1024 exception</literal> to the short name. This document provides a list of
1025 keywords that must be used when referring to the most frequent
1026 exceptions. When exceptions other than these are in effect that modify
1027 a common license by granting additional permissions, you may use an
1028 arbitrary keyword not taken from the below list of keywords. When a
1029 license differs from a common license because of added restrictions
1030 rather than because of added permissions, a distinct short name should
1031 be used instead of <literal>with
1032 <varname><replaceable>keywords</replaceable></varname>
1033 exception</literal>.
1036 Only one exception may be specified for each license within a given
1037 license specification. If more than one exception applies to a single
1038 license, an arbitrary short name indicating that combination of
1039 multiple exceptions must be used instead.
1042 The GPL <literal>Font</literal> exception refers to the text added to the
1043 license notice of each file as specified at <ulink
1044 url="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq#FontException">How does the GPL
1045 apply to fonts</ulink>. The precise text corresponding to this
1047 <programlisting>As a special exception, if you create a document which uses this font,
1048 and embed this font or unaltered portions of this font into the
1049 document, this font does not by itself cause the resulting document to
1050 be covered by the GNU General Public License. This exception does not
1051 however invalidate any other reasons why the document might be covered
1052 by the GNU General Public License. If you modify this font, you may
1053 extend this exception to your version of the font, but you are not
1054 obligated to do so. If you do not wish to do so, delete this exception
1055 statement from your version.</programlisting>
1058 The GPL <literal>OpenSSL</literal> exception gives permission to link GPL-licensed
1059 code with the OpenSSL library, which contains GPL-incompatible clauses.
1060 For more information, see <ulink
1061 url="http://www.gnome.org/~markmc/openssl-and-the-gpl">The OpenSSL License and
1062 The GPL</ulink> by Mark
1063 McLoughlin and the message <ulink
1064 url="http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2004/05/msg00595.html">middleman
1065 software license conflicts with OpenSSL</ulink>
1066 by Mark McLoughlin on the <emphasis>debian-legal</emphasis> mailing list. The text corresponding
1067 to this exception is:
1068 <programlisting>In addition, as a special exception, the copyright holders give
1069 permission to link the code of portions of this program with the
1070 OpenSSL library under certain conditions as described in each
1071 individual source file, and distribute linked combinations including
1074 You must obey the GNU General Public License in all respects for all
1075 of the code used other than OpenSSL. If you modify file(s) with this
1076 exception, you may extend this exception to your version of the
1077 file(s), but you are not obligated to do so. If you do not wish to do
1078 so, delete this exception statement from your version. If you delete
1079 this exception statement from all source files in the program, then
1080 also delete it here.</programlisting>
1083 <section id="public-domain">
1084 <title>Public domain</title>
1086 The <varname>License</varname> short name
1087 <literal>public-domain</literal> does not refer to a set of license
1088 terms. There are some works which are not subject to copyright in
1089 any jurisdiction and therefore no license is required for any
1090 purpose covered by copyright law. This short name is an explicit
1091 declaration that the associated files are <quote>in the public
1095 Widespread misunderstanding about copyright in general, and the
1096 public domain in particular, results in the common assertion that a
1097 work is in the public domain when this is partly or wholly untrue
1098 for that work. The <ulink
1099 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain">Wikipedia article
1100 on public domain</ulink> is a useful reference for this subject.
1103 When the <varname>License</varname> field in a paragraph has the
1104 short name <literal>public-domain</literal>, the remaining lines of
1105 the field <emphasis>must</emphasis> explain exactly what exemption
1106 the corresponding files for that paragraph have from default
1107 copyright restrictions.
1112 <section id="license-syntax">
1113 <title>Syntax</title>
1115 License names are case-insensitive, and may not contain spaces.
1118 In case of multi-licensing, the license short names are separated by
1119 <literal>or</literal> when the user can chose between different licenses,
1120 and by <literal>and</literal> when use of the work must simultaneously
1121 comply with the terms of multiple licenses.
1124 For instance, this is a simple, <quote>GPL version 2 or later</quote>
1126 <programlisting>License: GPL-2+</programlisting>
1127 This is a dual-licensed GPL/Artistic work such as Perl:
1128 <programlisting>License: GPL-1+ or Artistic</programlisting>
1129 This is for a file that has both GPL and classic BSD code in it:
1130 <programlisting>License: GPL-2+ and BSD-3-clause</programlisting>
1131 For the most complex cases, a comma is used to disambiguate the
1132 priority of <literal>or</literal>s and <literal>and</literal>s.
1133 The conjunction <quote><literal>and</literal></quote> has priority over
1134 <quote><literal>or</literal></quote> unless preceded by a comma. For
1138 <literal>A or B and C</literal> means <literal>A or (B and C)</literal>.
1141 <literal>A or B, and C</literal> means <literal>(A or B) and
1145 This is for a file that has Perl code and classic BSD code in it:
1146 <programlisting>License: GPL-2+ or Artistic-2.0, and BSD-3-clause</programlisting>
1147 A <literal>GPL-2+</literal> work with the <literal>OpenSSL</literal>
1148 exception is in effect a dual-licensed work that can be redistributed
1149 either under the <literal>GPL-2+</literal>, or under the
1150 <literal>GPL-2+</literal> with the <literal>OpenSSL</literal> exception.
1151 It is thus expressed as <literal>GPL-2+ with OpenSSL
1152 exception</literal>. A possible <varname>License</varname> field
1153 for such a license is:
1154 <programlisting>License: GPL-2+ with OpenSSL exception
1155 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
1156 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
1157 License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
1158 version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
1161 In addition, as a special exception, the author of this
1162 program gives permission to link the code of its
1163 release with the OpenSSL project's "OpenSSL" library (or
1164 with modified versions of it that use the same license as
1165 the "OpenSSL" library), and distribute the linked
1166 executables. You must obey the GNU General Public
1167 License in all respects for all of the code used other
1168 than "OpenSSL". If you modify this file, you may extend
1169 this exception to your version of the file, but you are
1170 not obligated to do so. If you do not wish to do so,
1171 delete this exception statement from your version.
1173 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be
1174 useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
1175 warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
1176 PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more
1179 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
1180 License along with this package; if not, write to the Free
1181 Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor,
1182 Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
1184 On Debian systems, the full text of the GNU General Public
1185 License version 2 can be found in the file
1186 `/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-2'.</programlisting>
1193 <ulink url="http://spdx.org/">SPDX</ulink> is an attempt to standardize
1194 a format for communicating the components, licenses and copyrights
1195 associated with a software package. It and the machine-readable
1196 <filename>debian/copyright</filename> format attempt to be somewhat
1197 compatible. However, the two formats have different aims, and so the
1198 formats are different. The <ulink
1199 url="http://wiki.debian.org/Proposals/CopyrightFormat">DEP5 wiki
1200 page</ulink> will be used to track the differences.
1205 <section id="examples">
1206 <title>Examples</title>
1208 <title>Simple</title>
1210 A possible <filename>debian/copyright</filename> file for the program
1211 <quote>X Solitaire</quote> distributed in the Debian source package
1212 <literal>xsol</literal>:
1213 <programlisting><![CDATA[Format: http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/
1214 Upstream-Name: X Solitaire
1215 Source: ftp://ftp.example.com/pub/games
1218 Copyright: Copyright 1998 John Doe <jdoe@example.com>
1220 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
1221 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
1222 License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
1223 version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
1226 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be
1227 useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
1228 warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
1229 PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more
1232 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
1233 License along with this package; if not, write to the Free
1234 Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor,
1235 Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
1237 On Debian systems, the full text of the GNU General Public
1238 License version 2 can be found in the file
1239 `/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-2'.
1242 Copyright: Copyright 1998 Jane Smith <jsmith@example.net>
1244 [LICENSE TEXT]]]></programlisting>
1249 <title>Complex</title>
1251 A possible <filename>debian/copyright</filename> file for the program
1252 <quote>Planet Venus</quote>, distributed in the Debian source
1253 package <literal>planet-venus</literal>:
1254 <programlisting><![CDATA[Format: http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/
1255 Upstream-Name: Planet Venus
1256 Upstream-Contact: John Doe <jdoe@example.com>
1257 Source: http://www.example.com/code/venus
1260 Copyright: 2008, John Doe <jdoe@example.com>
1261 2007, Jane Smith <jsmith@example.org>
1262 2007, Joe Average <joe@example.org>
1263 2007, J. Random User <jr@users.example.com>
1268 Copyright: 2008, Dan Developer <dan@debian.example.com>
1270 Copying and distribution of this package, with or without
1271 modification, are permitted in any medium without royalty
1272 provided the copyright notice and this notice are
1275 Files: debian/patches/theme-diveintomark.patch
1276 Copyright: 2008, Joe Hacker <hack@example.org>
1280 Files: planet/vendor/compat_logging/*
1281 Copyright: 2002, Mark Smith <msmith@example.org>
1285 Files: planet/vendor/httplib2/*
1286 Copyright: 2006, John Brown <brown@example.org>
1288 Unspecified MIT style license.
1290 Files: planet/vendor/feedparser.py
1291 Copyright: 2007, Mike Smith <mike@example.org>
1295 Files: planet/vendor/htmltmpl.py
1296 Copyright: 2004, Thomas Brown <coder@example.org>
1298 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
1299 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
1300 License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
1301 version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
1304 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be
1305 useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
1306 warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
1307 PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more
1310 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
1311 License along with this package; if not, write to the Free
1312 Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor,
1313 Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
1315 On Debian systems, the full text of the GNU General Public
1316 License version 2 can be found in the file
1317 `/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-2'.]]></programlisting>