Workshop: License compliance in Debian

Track: Workshops

Type: Workshop

Room: Filasez Aula (Workshop Room)

Time: Aug 30 (Sun): 09:00

Duration: 2:00

Over the past few years there was a significant increase of Debian being used in embedded devices. In comparison to the “classical” usage on a server or desktop machine this use case brings an additional challenge when it comes to license compliance: The installation is usually being copied and distributed (on a device) which triggers license obligations for the party doing so. Therefore the license compliance material (license texts and copyright information) of packages significantly gained importance. This workshop covers the requirements for high quality license compliance material. This also includes topics like license compatibility and how this can be checked for a given executable.

Agenda: 1) Problem statement and motivation 2) Tools (covering FOSSology, licensecheck, scancode) 3) License compatibility: What is license compatibility and how can it be checked? (covering callgraph and the OSADL license compatibility matrix) 4) Re-using license compliance material from the OSSelot project

The workshop is targeted for package maintainers and developers who are interested in license compliance. The presentation will be done in a way which gets the audience into discussion on how these methods can be used by the Debian project to provide high quality compliance material for users.