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Re: is copyleft packaging bad for Debian?

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On Fri, Jan 30, 2026 at 02:04:44PM +0100, Jonas Smedegaard wrote:
>Hi dear fellow Debian developers,
>
>When I package a project for inclusion into Debian, I commonly license
>my packaging work using a copyleft license¹.
>
>I appreciate that upstream authors may have reasons to choose different
>licensing, and am open to relicense non-packaging parts (e.g. patches).
>Sometimes I proactively license patches potential for upstream adoption
>same as upstream, but generally I don't - patches are often arguably
>too small to be copyright-protected, or might contain contributions
>from multiple authors - in short, it is simpler for me to ensure that
>the packaging parts are all DFSG-free than that they are all compliant
>with upstream choice of licensing, and I see no need for the packaging
>part to be compliant with upstream choice of licensing.
>
>My question here is: Am I doing a disservice to Debian? 

*shrug*

I haven't been in situations where this matters, but I may have seen 
discussions of those a couple of times.

It's certainly one of those things that may force people to spend more 
time and brain power on such packaging in various situations though.

>Do Debian already have a Policy about this?

No, but AFAIK the project consensus is "a simple permissive license or the 
same license as the upstream; but also maybe the license doesn't matter 
because it's not copyrightable".

> If not, should we add one?

"You must license your packaging under these licenses" seems unusual to me 
as a written policy, but maybe it's fine.


-- 
WBR, wRAR

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Thread

is copyleft packaging bad for Debian? Jonas Smedegaard <dr@jones.dk> - 2026-01-30 15:50 +0100
  Re: is copyleft packaging bad for Debian? Matthias Geiger <werdahias@riseup.net> - 2026-01-30 17:40 +0100
    Re: is copyleft packaging bad for Debian? Martin <debacle@debian.org> - 2026-01-31 12:30 +0100
  Re: is copyleft packaging bad for Debian? Soren Stoutner <soren@debian.org> - 2026-01-30 17:40 +0100
  Re: is copyleft packaging bad for Debian? Andrey Rakhmatullin <wrar@debian.org> - 2026-01-30 17:40 +0100
  Re: is copyleft packaging bad for Debian? Arto Jantunen <viiru@debian.org> - 2026-01-31 10:40 +0100
    Re: is copyleft packaging bad for Debian? Jonas Smedegaard <dr@jones.dk> - 2026-01-31 12:30 +0100
      Re: is copyleft packaging bad for Debian? Andrey Rakhmatullin <wrar@debian.org> - 2026-01-31 12:50 +0100
      Re: is copyleft packaging bad for Debian? Matthias Geiger <werdahias@riseup.net> - 2026-01-31 17:30 +0100
      Re: is copyleft packaging bad for Debian? Mechtilde Stehmann <mechtilde@debian.org> - 2026-01-31 18:00 +0100
      Re: is copyleft packaging bad for Debian? Tollef Fog Heen <tfheen@err.no> - 2026-01-31 20:50 +0100
        Re: is copyleft packaging bad for Debian? Simon Josefsson <simon@josefsson.org> - 2026-02-02 16:20 +0100
          Re: is copyleft packaging bad for Debian? "Andrea Pappacoda" <andrea@pappacoda.it> - 2026-02-03 15:10 +0100
          Re: is copyleft packaging bad for Debian? Guillem Jover <guillem@debian.org> - 2026-02-04 10:50 +0100
            Re: is copyleft packaging bad for Debian? Soren Stoutner <soren@debian.org> - 2026-02-04 18:30 +0100
    Re: is copyleft packaging bad for Debian? "Andrea Pappacoda" <tachi@debian.org> - 2026-01-31 17:10 +0100
    Is Packaging Copyrightable (was: is copyleft packaging bad for Debian?) Soren Stoutner <soren@debian.org> - 2026-02-02 20:10 +0100
      Re: Is Packaging Copyrightable Martin <debacle@debian.org> - 2026-02-02 21:50 +0100
        as any other metadata + code expression  Question: Is Packaging Copyrightable Yaroslav Halchenko <yoh@debian.org> - 2026-02-03 00:30 +0100
      Re: Is Packaging Copyrightable Tollef Fog Heen <tfheen@err.no> - 2026-02-02 23:00 +0100
        Re: Is Packaging Copyrightable Soren Stoutner <soren@debian.org> - 2026-02-02 23:40 +0100
  Re: is copyleft packaging bad for Debian? Antoine Le Gonidec <vv221@debian.org> - 2026-01-31 17:40 +0100
  Re: is copyleft packaging bad for Debian? Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org> - 2026-01-31 20:00 +0100

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