auto-inserting COPYING

[Karl Berry]

I just learned that in some circumstances automake will insert a COPYING
file if it's missing (albeit with a warning), e.g., at make dist?  (I
didn't look into the precise details.)

I expect there's probably been plenty of discussion about it that I'm
unaware of, but to my naive eyes, this is simply a mistake.  It seems to
me that the license file of whatever sort should always be included in
the sources: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#WhyMustIInclude.

Having automake insert it tempts people to treat it as an auto-generated
file.

If there are significant arguments for auto-inclusion of COPYING, we
should probably ask rms about it explicitly.  Unless he's already given
his blessing, in which case forget this whole thing.

Thanks,
Karl