usb.ids installed in several copies to the system

On my system, it only gives :

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2007-05-23 19:06 /usr/share/misc/usb.ids -> /var/lib/misc/usb.ids
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 64089 2007-09-23 12:50 /var/lib/misc/usb.ids

Could you do that please :
sudo find /usr /var /etc /lib -name usb.ids | xargs dpkg -S

So we could know which packages are the culprits

6.06.1 i386:

# sudo find /usr /var /etc /lib -name usb.ids | xargs dpkg -S
usbutils: /usr/share/misc/usb.ids
hwdata: /usr/share/hwdata/usb.ids
lshw-common: /usr/share/lshw/usb.ids
usbutils: /var/lib/misc/usb.ids

In my gutsy I onlu have like Stephane 1 physical file and 1 symbolic link.

psl, I think that your file:
hwdata: /usr/share/hwdata/usb.ids

corresponds to the FREEBSD way to use usb.ids

lshw-common has been removed since gutsy and lshw now depends on usbutils for usb.ids.
A search in hardy returns that the following binary packages still contain usb.ids: kinfocenter-kde4, bitpim and hwdata.
These should be changed to depend on usbutils for usb.ids, adding the necessary tasks.

lshw (02.10-1) unstable; urgency=low

  * Remove lshw-common package. manuf.txt and oui.txt aren't used at all,
      and we now depend on pciutils and usbutils for pci.ids and usb.ids
      respectively (ubuntu patch)

 -- Ghe Rivero <email address hidden> Thu, 03 May 2007 20:02:07 +0200

KInfoCenter prefers hwdata's file over the shipped one (see http://websvn.kde.org/trunk/KDE/kdebase/apps/kinfocenter/usbview/usbdb.cpp?r1=558082&r2=703022) and since hwdata needs to be fixed as well, I mark this bug invalid for kdebase-kde4.

This bug was fixed in the package bitpim - 1.0.5.dfsg.1-5

---------------
bitpim (1.0.5.dfsg.1-5) unstable; urgency=low

  * Clean up /usr/share/bitpim/resources; in particular, use usbutils's
    usb.ids rather than a stale copy. (LP: #77929.)
  * Update path to evolution's contacts. (LP: #221006.)
  * src/database.py (Database._getindirect): strip spurious trailing L
    characters that have started showing up in row numbers.
  * src/bp.py: explicitly use wxPython 2.6, as other versions aren't 100%
    compatible. (LP: #177569.)

 -- Ubuntu Archive Auto-Sync <email address hidden> Tue, 04 Nov 2008 21:13:55 +0000

This will save us some 330 kB of CD space, which we urgently need for the overflown precise images.

This bug was fixed in the package hwdata - 0.233-1ubuntu1

---------------
hwdata (0.233-1ubuntu1) precise; urgency=low

  * debian/rules: Don't install usb.ids and pci.ids, instead symlink to the
    corresponding files in usbutils and pciutils (which are newer anyway).
    (LP: #77929, Debian #635302)
  * debian/control: Add pciutils and usbutils dependencies.
 -- Martin Pitt <email address hidden> Thu, 12 Apr 2012 15:46:21 +0200