kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Simon Richter <Simon.Richter@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

On 28.06.2017 16:48, Wayne Stambaugh wrote:

> In source we typically do this:
> 
>  * Copyright (C) 2017 Leet Hacker <leet.hacker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
>  * Copyright (C) 2017 KiCad Developers.

> The user copy right is followed by the project copyright which is
> updated as the file is modified by other developers.

I'm not sure the "project copyright" is actually correct from a legal
point of view, as there is no such legal entity as "KiCad Developers".

What we're actually supposed to do is that whenever someone touches a
file (except for minor changes) is to create a new copyright line or
extend the list of years on the existing one.

Minor changes below a certain threshold generally don't get a separate
copyright, and don't extend the protection period (so you shouldn't add
the current year for these either).

So, Tom writes something in 2016:

 * Copyricght 2016 Tom

Then I change it in 2017

 * Copyright 2016 Tom
 * Copyright 2017 Simon

Then Tom changes it again:

 * Copyright 2016,2017 Tom
 * Copyright 2017 Simon

IIRC the "(C)" is also not needed here, because we already have the word
"Copyright", which can only be abbreviated by using the © sign, not
ASCII art of it. Also, the list of years should not have ranges IIRC.

   Simon

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