Do not require initial Debian maintainers be listed in copyright

The documentation of debian/copyright explicitly required the
initial Debian maintainers be listed in the file.  That information
is already in the changelog, and they may no longer hold any
copyrights on the remaining files in the package.  Drop that
requirement, although the requirement to include copyright and
license information is still in force.

* Policy: Initial Debian maintainers need not be listed in copyright
  Wording: Charles Plessy <plessy@debian.org>
  Seconded: Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org>
  Seconded: Raphaël Hertzog <hertzog@debian.org>
  Seconded: Andrew McMillan <andrew@morphoss.com>
  Closes: #593533

diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index 6375f50046cb35f5a97d300c71d29c8703edde43..1550e6d2ebd06613925e906f379e821259705bd7 100644 (file)
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -7,6 +7,12 @@ debian-policy (3.9.3.0) UNRELEASED; urgency=low
     Seconded: Charles Plessy <plessy@debian.org>
     Seconded: Guillem Jover <guillem@debian.org>
     Closes: #626779
+  * Policy: Initial Debian maintainers need not be listed in copyright
+    Wording: Charles Plessy <plessy@debian.org>
+    Seconded: Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org>
+    Seconded: Raphaël Hertzog <hertzog@debian.org>
+    Seconded: Andrew McMillan <andrew@morphoss.com>
+    Closes: #593533
   * Consistently use "Debian source control file" for *.dsc files and
     "Source package control file" for debian/control files.  Patch from
     Charles Plessy.  (Closes: #626796)

diff --git a/policy.sgml b/policy.sgml
index 16ffc0f98a2e9e20dd86ea6b6e0d89bc2c650fc3..854fde66d2e4e1d29bddb7f9dbb2201988ccdcc6 100644 (file)
--- a/policy.sgml
+++ b/policy.sgml
@@ -9757,9 +9757,8 @@ END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
 
        <p>
          In addition, the copyright file must say where the upstream
-         sources (if any) were obtained.  It should name the original
-         authors of the package and the Debian maintainer(s) who were
-         involved with its creation.
+         sources (if any) were obtained, and should name the original
+         authors.
        </p>
 
        <p>

diff --git a/upgrading-checklist.sgml b/upgrading-checklist.sgml
index a0f46980356505ebe93fba83a7075d3cd5628ef4..80a48108ff0d7f207ef39b0d4ed60a41aa9328d3 100644 (file)
--- a/upgrading-checklist.sgml
+++ b/upgrading-checklist.sgml
@@ -57,8 +57,13 @@ Unreleased.
   of normal rules for non-free dependencies and were largely obsolete, so
   they have been removed.
   </item>
+<tag>12.5</tag>
+  <item><file>debian/copyright</file> is no longer required to list the
+  Debian maintainers involved in the creation of the package (although
+  note that the requirement to list copyright information is unchanged).
+  </item>
 <tag>perl</tag>
-  <item> Packages may declare an interest in the <var>perl-major-upgrade</var> 
+  <item>Packages may declare an interest in the <var>perl-major-upgrade</var> 
   trigger to be notified of major upgrades of perl.
   </item>
 <tag>virtual</tag>