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Re: is copyleft packaging bad for Debian?

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If the packaging and the upstream source have different licenses, I
wonder what is the license on the resulting package -- both source and
binary?

For the source -- GPL permits "mere aggregation" of GPL and non-GPL
code in the same medium. But since the packaging is meant to work with
the upstream source, and is useless without it, I'm skeptic that they
could be considered "merely aggregated". So, there is at least some
ground for claiming that the GPL license of the packaging must extend
to the whole source package.

This argument seems even stronger for the binary. The binary is
generated from the upstream source and the packaging working together,
so it is most clearly not a "mere aggregation". I suppose that the
more "absorbing" license would prevail, that is, the binary must be
licensed under the GPL.

And what if the upstream license is incompatible with the GPL? In that
case it seems that the package would be *undistributable*.

That is, unless we adopt the view that packaging isn't copyrightable
-- but if it isn't, how does it make sense to stick a license on it?

Thus, I agree that the best course of action is likely to release the
packaging under the same license as the upstream source.

Gerardo

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Re: is copyleft packaging bad for Debian? Gerardo Ballabio <gerardo.ballabio@gmail.com> - 2026-02-02 13:50 +0100
  Re: is copyleft packaging bad for Debian? Jonas Smedegaard <dr@jones.dk> - 2026-02-02 14:40 +0100
    Re: is copyleft packaging bad for Debian? Andrey Rakhmatullin <wrar@debian.org> - 2026-02-02 16:20 +0100
      Re: is copyleft packaging bad for Debian? Ansgar 🙀 <ansgar@debian.org> - 2026-02-02 17:10 +0100
        Re: is copyleft packaging bad for Debian? Jonas Smedegaard <dr@jones.dk> - 2026-02-02 20:10 +0100
          Is Packaging Copyrightable (was: is copyleft packaging bad for Debian?) Soren Stoutner <soren@debian.org> - 2026-02-02 20:20 +0100
            Re: Is Packaging Copyrightable (was: is copyleft packaging bad for Debian?) Jonas Smedegaard <dr@jones.dk> - 2026-02-03 15:10 +0100
              Re: Is Packaging Copyrightable (was: is copyleft packaging bad for Debian?) Soren Stoutner <soren@debian.org> - 2026-02-03 18:00 +0100
          Re: is copyleft packaging bad for Debian? Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org> - 2026-02-02 21:50 +0100
            Re: is copyleft packaging bad for Debian? Jonas Smedegaard <dr@jones.dk> - 2026-02-03 15:10 +0100
              Re: is copyleft packaging bad for Debian? Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org> - 2026-02-03 23:30 +0100
                Re: is copyleft packaging bad for Debian? Soren Stoutner <soren@debian.org> - 2026-02-04 00:00 +0100
                Re: is copyleft packaging bad for Debian? Jeremy Stanley <fungi@yuggoth.org> - 2026-02-04 00:20 +0100
                Re: is copyleft packaging bad for Debian? Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org> - 2026-02-04 02:40 +0100
                Re: is copyleft packaging bad for Debian? Jeremy Stanley <fungi@yuggoth.org> - 2026-02-04 19:00 +0100
    Re: is copyleft packaging bad for Debian? thomas@goirand.fr - 2026-02-02 20:20 +0100

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