Re: [gtk-list] GNUing question

["Damon Chaplin" <DAChaplin email msn com>]

>After visiting the GNU homepage, the directions on how to GNU a piece of
>software is relatively straightforward, except for one thing.  Basically,
>it says I need to copyright the software first.  My question is, to what
>extent do I copyright my software?  Do I go through the process of
>paying a gov't agency and "officially" copyrighting it or do I
>just slap a "(C)1998 David Finton" somewhere, plant the public licenses
>where needed, and hope for the best?  (I live in the state of Minnesota,
>if that helps).


The best thing to do is to pinch the copyright stuff from an existing GNU
program.
Look at the COPYING file, usually found in the program's root directory.
Just adding (C) 1998 .... is enough, as far as I know.
(I think the gov't agency stuff is for patents rather than copyrighting, but
I'm in the UK)

Here's my license stuff:


/*  Gtk+ User Interface Builder
 *  Copyright (C) 1998  Damon Chaplin
 *
 *  This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
 *  it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
 *  the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
 *  (at your option) any later version.
 *
 *  This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 *  but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 *  MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
 *  GNU General Public License for more details.
 *
 *  You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 *  along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
 *  Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307,
USA.
*/


Damon