Re: Removing in-source contribution records contributer

Carlos O'Donell
2025-04-09T21:15:26Z

On 4/8/25 5:25 PM, Alejandro Colomar wrote:
> Hi Eugene,
>
> On Tue, Apr 08, 2025 at 08:00:19PM +0200, Eugene Syromyatnikov wrote:
>>>>> Every now and then, I consider if I should just remove all of those
>>>>> lines, to avoid confusing people. If anyone is interested in the
>>>>> history before git(1), one can certainly look at those lines in old
>>>>> versions of the pages. Anyone reading the mailing list opposes
>>>>> removing those lines? (I'll ask again before removing anything, with
>>>>> a proper subject line.)
>>>
>>> Okay, time has come to open this melon. :)
>>
>> In strace, FWIW, we have the following:
>> * the copyright notice looks like "Copyright (c) <year>-<year> The
>> strace developers.";
>
> Hmmm, interesting. And actually, it's more accurate than the usual
> copyright lines.

The value of the line "Copyright (c) The Foo Developers" is to indicate
that the works are copyrighted, and it avoids anyone who infringes from
arguing they "didn't know." It is in itself not a copyright statement.

What value is there in maintaining the year?

Note:
Copyright Notices in Open Source Software Projects (Steve Winslow)
https://www.linuxfoundation.org/blog/blog/copyright-notices-in-open-source-software-projects

--
Cheers,
Carlos.