From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 25352 invoked by alias); 19 Apr 2012 17:33:02 -0000 Received: (qmail 25336 invoked by uid 22791); 19 Apr 2012 17:33:00 -0000 X-SWARE-Spam-Status: No, hits=-6.3 required=5.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00,KHOP_RCVD_UNTRUST,RCVD_IN_DNSWL_HI,RCVD_IN_HOSTKARMA_W,SPF_HELO_PASS,T_RP_MATCHES_RCVD X-Spam-Check-By: sourceware.org Received: from mx1.redhat.com (HELO mx1.redhat.com) (209.132.183.28) by sourceware.org (qpsmtpd/0.43rc1) with ESMTP; Thu, 19 Apr 2012 17:32:40 +0000 Received: from int-mx12.intmail.prod.int.phx2.redhat.com (int-mx12.intmail.prod.int.phx2.redhat.com [10.5.11.25]) by mx1.redhat.com (8.14.4/8.14.4) with ESMTP id q3JHWduI012510 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=OK); Thu, 19 Apr 2012 13:32:39 -0400 Received: from psique (ovpn-112-22.phx2.redhat.com [10.3.112.22]) by int-mx12.intmail.prod.int.phx2.redhat.com (8.14.4/8.14.4) with ESMTP id q3JHWYmA020389; Thu, 19 Apr 2012 13:32:36 -0400 From: Sergio Durigan Junior To: Pedro Alves Cc: Doug Evans , gdb-patches@sourceware.org Subject: Re: [patch] Create cleanups.[ch] References: <4F8BF983.2090204@redhat.com> <4F8E8A37.6070900@redhat.com> X-URL: http://www.redhat.com Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2012 17:37:00 -0000 In-Reply-To: <4F8E8A37.6070900@redhat.com> (Pedro Alves's message of "Wed, 18 Apr 2012 10:32:39 +0100") Message-ID: User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.3 (gnu/linux) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-IsSubscribed: yes Mailing-List: contact gdb-patches-help@sourceware.org; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk List-Id: List-Subscribe: List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: , Sender: gdb-patches-owner@sourceware.org X-SW-Source: 2012-04/txt/msg00641.txt.bz2 On Wednesday, April 18 2012, Pedro Alves wrote: > On 04/16/2012 07:50 PM, Sergio Durigan Junior wrote: > >> I always thought that the Copyright referred to the file itself, so if >> you create a new file you should "restart" the Copyright notice even if >> this file doesn't contain new things. After all, if you moved things >> around, they were already covered by the copyright of the file which >> they belonged before. > > > But then if you follow that patch one extra step, you can rename > the files back to their original names, and what you end up with > is exactly with you started with, except you've lost all your copyright > years. If that's okay, then I've just proven that a copyright year list > is insignificant and unnecessary, and we can just go do a wholesale pass > on the whole codebase replacing all the multiple years by a single > "2012" year. Turns out you are right. Here is the reply from FSF: ---- From: "Donald R Robertson III via RT" Subject: [gnu.org #745974] Question about Copyright notice on files=20 To: sergiodj@redhat.com Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2012 13:01:52 -0400 Reply-To: copyright-clerk@fsf.org X-Sent: 22 minutes, 40 seconds ago Hello, Thanks for checking in on this. > [sergiodj@redhat.com - Wed Apr 18 01:59:09 2012]: >=20 > Hello, >=20 > On behalf of the GDB Project, I am sending you a question that arose > while discussing some patch in the gdb-patches mailing list. The > question is about the Copyright notice on files of the project. If you > are interested in the discussion, please have a look at this specific > thread: >=20 > > http://sourceware.org/ml/gdb-patches/2012-04/msg00395.html>=20 > To make it "short": we would like to know if, when we move an already > existing piece of code from one file (say `old-file.c', for example) to > another, newly created file (say `new-file.c', which was created during > this code movement), what should be the year specified in the Copyright > notice above the file? If `old-file.c' has a copyright like this: >=20 >=20 > > Copyright (C) 1986, 1988-2005, 2007-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc. >=20 > Should the `new-file.c' contain these same years on its own Copyright > notice, or should it contain only the year when it was created, e.g., > supposing `new-file.c' was created today, should it display: >=20 > > Copyright (C) 2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc. >=20 > as the notice? >=20 > Please correct me if I'm wrong, but if you prefer, maybe you can > interpret this question as: "Is the Copyright notice related to the > contents of the file, or to the file itself?" >=20 > Thank you very much, The short answer is that the notice relates to what is in the file. This is the relevant section in the maintainers guide=20 (http://www.gnu.org/prep/maintain/maintain.html#Copyright-Notices): "To update the list of year numbers, add each year in which you have made n= ontrivial changes to=20 the package. (Here we assume you=E2=80=99re using a publicly accessible rev= ision control server, so that=20 every revision installed is also immediately and automatically published.) = When you add the new=20 year, it is not required to keep track of which files have seen significant= changes in the new=20 year and which have not. It is recommended and simpler to add the new year = to all files in the=20 package, and be done with it for the rest of the year. Don=E2=80=99t delete old year numbers, though; they are significant since t= hey indicate when older=20 versions might theoretically go into the public domain, if the movie compan= ies don=E2=80=99t continue=20 buying laws to further extend copyright. If you copy a file into the packag= e from some other=20 program, keep the copyright years that come with the file." As you can see, it turns on when changes are made, not when the file is cre= ated. Since the code=20 itself was created in previous years, we need to maintain those years in th= e copyright notice.=20 So in your example, the notice should read like this: Copyright (C) 1986, 1988-2005, 2007-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc. As the manual notes, you can just add the most recent year to all non-trivi= al files, without=20 divining whether each individual file has been updated. I hope this answers= your question but=20 let me know if you need any more information. >=20 >=20 >=20 --=20 Sincerely, Donald R. Robertson, III, J.D. Assignment Administrator Free Software Foundation 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor Boston, MA 02110 Phone +1-617-542-5942=20 Fax +1-617-542-2652 --- --=20 Sergio