--- /dev/null
+This is the Debian GNU/Linux prepackaged version of GNU tar. GNU
+tar, heavily based on John Gilmore's public domain version of tar,
+was originally written by Graham Todd. It is now maintained by
+Paul Eggert <eggert@twinsun.com>.
+
+This package is maintained for Debian by Bdale Garbee <bdale@gag.com>, and
+was built from the sources found at:
+
+ ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/tar/
+
+GNU tar is
+
+ Copyright (C) 1988, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000,
+ 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+
+ This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
+ under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
+ Free Software Foundation; either version 3, or (at your option) any later
+ version.
+
+On Debian GNU/Linux systems, the complete text of the GNU General Public
+License version 3 can be found in /usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-3.
+
+The Debian packaging is
+
+ Copyright (C) 2006, 2007 Bdale Garbee <bdale@gag.com>
+
+ This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
+ under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
+ Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any later
+ version.
+
+On Debian GNU/Linux systems, the complete text of the GNU General Public
+License version 2 can be found in /usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-2.