[sword-devel] ftplib.c licence/copyright issues

[Jonathan Marsden]

>>  src/utilfuns/ftplib.c: UNKNOWN

Dmitrijs Ledkovs wrote:

> It's LGPL v2+ with Incorrect FSF address.
> 
> Attaching a patch: ...

I think patching is an incorrect approach to this.

Only the copyright holder can change the copyright of their code.
Patching a copyright notice in packaging is, more or less by definition,
the wrong thing to do.  Stating in debian/copyright what the actual
copyright of the file is, and why we believe it to be that if there is
any ambiguity, is the correct approach to this situation, unless and
until we can persuade the authors to update their code and release a
version with an improved copyright notice.

The goal isn't to make sure licencecheck -r . output looks good; it is
to make sure that every file in the source tarball has a known DFSG-free
copyright and license.  It's simplest if licensecheck tells us all is
well, but in the end licensecheck is just a tool.  debian/copyright
being complete and correct is much more important.

Jonathan