<title>
Machine-readable <filename>debian/copyright</filename> file.
</title>
+ <subtitle>Version 1.0</subtitle>
<legalnotice>
<para>
Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification, are
automatically extract licensing information.
</para>
<para>
- This is not a proposal to change the policy in the short term. In
- particular, nothing in this proposal supersedes or modifies any of the
+ Use of this specification is optional.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Nothing in this proposal supersedes or modifies any of the
requirements specified in Debian Policy regarding the appropriate detail
or granularity to use when documenting copyright and license status in
<filename>debian/copyright</filename>.
no way to know how much of Debian should be stripped from such a system.
</para>
<para>
- A user might want to have a way to avoid software with certain licenses
- they have a problem with, even if the licenses are DFSG-free. For example,
- the Affero GPL.
+ Even where licenses are DFSG-free and mutually compatible, users might want
+ a way to avoid software with certain licenses, for example if they have a
+ problem with the Affero GPL.
</para>
</section>
paragraph</link>.
</para>
<para>
- The value of each field is of one of the four types listed below. The
- definition for each field in this document indicates which type of
- value it takes.
+ There are four types of fields. The definition for each field in this
+ document indicates which type of value it takes.
</para>
<section id="single-line">
<section id="line-based-lists">
<title>Line-based lists</title>
<para>
- Another kind of list value has one value per line. For example,
- <varname>Copyright</varname> can list many copyright statements, one per
+ This means that the field has one value per line. For example,
+ <varname>Upstream-Contact</varname> can list contact addresses, one per
line.
</para>
</section>
</para>
<section id="header-paragraph">
- <title>Header paragraph (Once)</title>
+ <title>Header paragraph (once)</title>
<para>
The following fields may be present in a header paragraph.
</para>
</section>
<section id="files-paragraph">
- <title>Files paragraph (Repeatable)</title>
+ <title>Files paragraph (repeatable)</title>
<para>
- The declaration of copyright and license for files is done in one or
+ The declaration of copyright and license for files may consist of one or
more paragraphs. In the simplest case, a single paragraph can be used
- which applies to all files and lists all applicable copyrights and
- licenses.
+ which applies to the whole package. Only the license and copyright
+ information required by the Debian archive is required to be listed
+ here.
</para>
<para>
The following fields may be present in a Files paragraph.
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- <link linkend="license-field">Copyright</link>: required.
+ <link linkend="copyright-field">Copyright</link>: required.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
</section>
<section id="stand-alone-license-paragraph">
- <title>Stand-alone License Paragraph (Optional, Repeatable)</title>
+ <title>Stand-alone License Paragraph (optional, repeatable)</title>
<para>
- Where a set of files are dual (tri, etc) licensed, or when the same
- license occurs multiple times, you can use a single-line
- <varname>License</varname> field and stand-alone
- <varname>License</varname> paragraphs to expand the license short names.
+ Stand-alone <varname>License</varname> paragraphs can be used to
+ provide the full license text for a given license once, instead of
+ repeating it in each <varname>Files</varname> paragraph that refers to
+ it. The first line of the <varname>License</varname> field must be a
+ single license short name or a short name followed by a license
+ exception.
</para>
<para>
The following fields may be present in a stand-alone License
<section id="source-field">
<title><varname>Source</varname></title>
<para>
- Formatted text, no synopsis: an explanation from where the upstream
+ Formatted text, no synopsis: an explanation of where the upstream
source came from. Typically this would be a URL, but it might be a
free-form explanation. The Debian Policy section <ulink
url="http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-docs#s-copyrightfile">12.5</ulink>
single copyright file.
</para>
<para>
- Remaining lines: if left blank here, the file
- <emphasis>must</emphasis> include a <link
+ If there are no remaining lines, then all of the short names
+ or short names followed by license exceptions making up the
+ first line must be described in <link
linkend="stand-alone-license-paragraph">stand-alone License
- paragraph</link> matching each license short
- name listed on the first line.
- Otherwise, this field should either
+ paragraphs</link>. Otherwise, this field should either
include the full text of the license(s) or include a pointer to the
license file under <filename>/usr/share/common-licenses</filename>.
This field should include all text needed in order to fulfill both
Copyright 2009 Angela Watts</programlisting>
and file B has:
<programlisting>Copyright 2010 Angela Watts</programlisting>
- the <varname>Copyright</varname> field for a stanza covering both
- file A and file B need contain only:
+ then the <varname>Copyright</varname> field for a paragraph covering both
+ file A and file B only needs to contain:
<programlisting>Copyright 2008 John Smith
Copyright 2009, 2010 Angela Watts</programlisting>
</para>
paragraph that matches a particular file applies to it.
</para>
<para>
- Exclusions are done by having multiple <varname>Files</varname>
- paragraphs.
+ Exclusions are only supported by adding <varname>Files</varname>
+ paragraphs to override the previous match.
</para>
</section>
added, using a dash as a separator. If omitted, the lowest version
number is implied. When the license grant permits using the terms of any
later version of that license, the short name is finished with a plus
- sign. For <link linkend="spdx">SPDX</link> compatibility, trailing
- <emphasis>dot-zeroes</emphasis> are considered to be equal to plainer
- version (e.g., <quote>2.0.0</quote> is considered equal to
+ sign. For <link linkend="spdx">SPDX</link> compatibility, versions with trailing
+ <emphasis>dot-zeroes</emphasis> are considered to be equivalent to
+ versions without (e.g., <quote>2.0.0</quote> is considered equal to
<quote>2.0</quote> and <quote>2</quote>).
</para>
<para>
This is a dual-licensed GPL/Artistic work such as Perl:
<programlisting>License: GPL-1+ or Artistic</programlisting>
This is for a file that has both GPL and classic BSD code in it:
-<programlisting>License: GPL-2+ and BSD</programlisting>
- For the most complex cases, the comma is used to disambiguate the
- priority of <literal>or</literal>s and <literal>and</literal>s
- <literal>and</literal> has the priority over <literal>or</literal>,
- unless preceded by a comma. For instance:
+<programlisting>License: GPL-2+ and BSD-3-clause</programlisting>
+ For the most complex cases, a comma is used to disambiguate the
+ priority of <literal>or</literal>s and <literal>and</literal>s.
+ The conjunction <quote><literal>and</literal></quote> has priority over
+ <quote><literal>or</literal></quote> unless preceded by a comma. For
+ instance:
</para>
<simpara>
<literal>A or B and C</literal> means <literal>A or (B and C)</literal>.
</simpara>
<simpara>
- <literal>A or B, and C</literal> means <literal>(A or B), and
+ <literal>A or B, and C</literal> means <literal>(A or B) and
C</literal>.
</simpara>
<para>
This is for a file that has Perl code and classic BSD code in it:
-<programlisting>License: GPL-2+ or Artistic-2.0, and BSD</programlisting>
+<programlisting>License: GPL-2+ or Artistic-2.0, and BSD-3-clause</programlisting>
A <literal>GPL-2+</literal> work with the <literal>OpenSSL</literal>
exception is in effect a dual-licensed work that can be redistributed
either under the <literal>GPL-2+</literal>, or under the
projects / debian / debian-policy.git / commitdiff