Re: [RFC] Add support for the Renesas rl78 architecture

[Kevin Buettner <kevinb@redhat.com>]

On Fri, 27 Jan 2012 09:34:31 +0400
Joel Brobecker <brobecker@adacore.com> wrote:

> > With regard to copyright years, I made sure that each new file lists
> > both 2011 and 2012.  As stated earlier, versions of these files were
> > released to our customer in 2011.
> 
> You could ask the FSF (email copyright-cleark - using fsf dot org
> as the domain), and the answer would be interesting to everyone.
> It would give us a better understanding of what the important factor
> is.  Is it the time of first writing, time of first release (define
> release).  Making changes seem to be the important factor, at least
> as far as adding copyright years is concerned.

I did as you suggested, asking the following question:

    I'm contributing some work to GDB which entailed adding some new
    files.  The work was performed last year (2011) and was released
    to a customer last year as well.  When we did that release to our
    customer, the standard GPL copyright was included at the top of
    each new file with 2011 listed as the year.

    Now that the file is being added to (upstream) GDB, the question
    has come up as to whether 2011 should be listed in addition to
    2012.  My feeling is that it should, but it was suggested that I
    ask you for guidance.

The response that I received from Donald R Robertson III is as follows:

    In general, a work receives copyright protection from the time it
    is fixed in a tangible medium of expression (e.g.  saved on a hard
    drive), and later additions receive protection when they are are
    created as well.  So the notice would generally read "Copyright
    2011-2012" if the work had been modified in both years, even if it
    wasn't published or distributed until 2012. 

    The better practice for large packages like GDB, however, is to
    add new years to all files in the package, even if that file
    wasn't modified in that year.  So even if the file wasn't updated
    in 2012, the notice should list 2011-2012, and the same would be
    true for all the years thereafter.

I will follow the above guidance and revise the dates in the copyright
notice for the new files that I'm contributing to read "2011-2012".

Kevin