The copyright file only states that it is licensed under the GPL,
but not which versions. This seems to imply it is licensed under
the GPL version 1.

The code meanwhile ships the GPL-2 in COPYING.

It's unclear whether the code is GPL-3 compatible. I'm not sure
this can be said, as there have been contributors aside from
the maintainer.

My advise would be to contact all the copyright holders, and
make sure that everyone is onboard with this actually being
GPL-2+ such that when dependencies update to GPL-3 or later
versions, you still remain compatible.

I am not sure if this bug can be reasonably solved right now,
maybe the copyright file can be changed to say GPL-2, I'd certainly
also advise using the machine-readable copyright format for it
to make everything clear rather than this half-assed free form.

The problem to consider with updating the copyright file to just
say GPL-2 is whether contributors knew they were contributing to
a GPL-2 codebase or whether they contributed thinking it was GPL-1.

Hi Enrico, hi Frannoe,
you have both contributed to packagesearch in the past (Frannoe
contributed the Spanish Translation, Enrico quite some code changes).

Bug #1050896 now states that I should clarify copyright:
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1050896
I would like to switch to GPL3+ and would like your approval for this
license switch.

I would ask you to CC 1050896@bugs.debian.org if you are comfortable
with this change.
I have BCCed you, to protect your E-Mail Address in case you want it to
remain private. Please not that CCing 1050896@bugs.debian.org will
record your response and mail-address permanently by the BTS and make
it accessible to the internet.

Regards
Ben

Sure, by all means please go ahead with the license switch to GPL3+.

If it can he helpful to you in the future, I'm hereby tranfering all my
copyright claims on packagesearch (if any) over to you.

Thank you for your work on packagesearch!

Enrico Zini

We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
packagesearch, which is due to be installed in the Debian FTP archive.

A summary of the changes between this version and the previous one is
attached.

Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed.  If you
have further comments please address them to 1050896@bugs.debian.org,
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.

Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Benjamin Mesing <ben@debian.org> (supplier of updated packagesearch package)

(This message was generated automatically at their request; if you
believe that there is a problem with it please contact the archive
administrators by mailing ftpmaster@ftp-master.debian.org)
Format: 1.8
Date: Sun, 07 Jan 2024 12:45:11 +0100
Source: packagesearch
Architecture: source
Version: 2.8.1
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: medium
Maintainer: Benjamin Mesing <ben@debian.org>
Changed-By: Benjamin Mesing <ben@debian.org>
Closes: 1050896
Changes:
 packagesearch (2.8.1) unstable; urgency=medium
 .
   * updated copyright to GPL-3
     - removed spanish translation because I could not reach copyright
       holder
   * introduced machine readable copyright file
   * Copyright fixes Closes: #1050896
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