The distutils documentation at
http://docs.python.org/dist/postinstallation-script.html#SECTION000620000000000000000
states that the RPM copyright field can be set using
the distutils setup script option "licence", but it is
refused as invalid by distutils:

$ /usr/bin/python2.3 setup.py bdist_rpm --licence="GNU
GPL v.2"
usage: setup.py [global_opts] cmd1 [cmd1_opts] [cmd2
[cmd2_opts] ...]
   or: setup.py --help [cmd1 cmd2 ...]
   or: setup.py --help-commands
   or: setup.py cmd --help

error: option --licence not recognized


It's also refused (same error message output, except
for spelling) with the spelling "license".  Both
spellings are also 
rejected as errors if placed in setup.cfg's [bdist_rpm]
section:

$ /usr/bin/python2.3 setup.py bdist_rpm
running bdist_rpm
error: error in setup.cfg: command 'bdist_rpm' has no
such option 'license'

Logged In: YES 
user_id=1064824

This was tested with Python 2.3.4 final, by the way.  The
behaviour was unchanged in earlier release candidates.

Logged In: YES 
user_id=1064824

No response?

I can't use distutils to create RPMs if I can't specify the
license.  Normally I'd just write my own spec file and use
the --spec-file option, but the docs say this isn't
implemented yet.

Logged In: YES 
user_id=1064824

My error, influenced by imprecise documentation.  The docs
make it sound like this can be supplied as a setup.cfg
parameter, but it's actually a parameter of the setup()
function.