Groups | Search | Server Info | Keyboard shortcuts | Login | Register [http] [https] [nntp] [nntps]

Groups > linux.debian.project > #14118

Re: is copyleft packaging bad for Debian?

Show all headers | View raw

Jonathan Carter <jcc@debian.org> writes:
> I agree with others that matching the package licensing is reasonable, although as we often see, bigger and larger
> packages tend to have a mixture of licenses, in which case we typically choose the most free license for the package.
>
> Occasionally, I run into problems with more advanced packages, and then find that Arch Linux of Gentoo have found a good
> solution to it, and I use it. When I've already spent some hours to a packaging solution in Debian, I want it to be
> available as widely as possible to others in the same manner with as little friction as possible. So, I think if I had
> to default on something else that "same as packaging", I'd use something like CC0 or something that is equally
> permissive.

I recently thought about this specific problem for reasons I can't now
remember, and arrived at the conclusion that CC0 is probably the best
license one can choose for packaging.

For the most part the packaging is unlikely to be copyrightable anyway
so assigning a license that has restrictions only makes things harder
for the friendly folks who care about license compatibility and are
unwilling to unilaterally decide that copyright doesn't apply.

Potentially making things difficult for good free software citizens
without in any way affecting the not so friendly folks seems
counterproductive to me.

-- 
Arto Jantunen

Back to linux.debian.project | Previous | Next — Previous in thread | Next in thread | Find similar | Unroll thread

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

csiph-web