Re: copyright info on linc?

[Chris Waters <xtifr debian org>]

On Mon, Oct 22, 2001 at 08:50:23PM -0400, Michael Meeks wrote:
> On Thu, 18 Oct 2001, Chris Waters wrote:

> > Debian policy says that each package must have a file,
> > /usr/share/doc/<packagename>/copyright, which contains explicit
> > copyright information and a copy of or pointer to the license.  But
> > looking at linc, I can't find any explicit copyright claims!

>         Oh, that sucks.

It's actually not so bad.  When I started programming, you had to
assert copyright or you could lose it (at least in the US).  That
hasn't been true since the early eighties, though.

> If only I knew how to fix it.

Well, you could follow the instructions in the LGPL, where it says
"Appendix: How to Apply These Terms to Your New Libraries".  :-)

> I'd appreciate a patch to do the fixage.

Since _none_ of the source files in linc contain a file header or
copyright statement, if it were up to me, I'd use a script something
like this (untested):

- - -
for i in `find . -name "*.[ch]" -print`
 do cp $i temp
    cat << EOH |sed s:@FILENAME@:`basename $i`: >$i
/*
 * @FILENAME@
 *
 * This file is part of the linc library.
 *
 * Copyright 2001, by Ximian, Inc., Red Hat, Inc., Sun Microsystems, Inc.,
 *  Elliot Lee <sopwith@redhat.com>, Michael Meeks <michael@ximian.com>,
 *  Mark McLoughlin <mark@skynet.ie>, and others.
 */
EOH
    cat temp >> $i
done
rm temp
- - -

I think the "and others" bit is probably a good idea, to remind
everyone that even the minor contributors have some copyright claim,
and that there's probably so many that any attempt to relicense linc
is doomed to failure from the start.  (Which is a Good Thing, IMO.)

I'd also list any individuals who have done enough work to qualify as
co-authors in the AUTHORS file.
-- 
Chris Waters           |  Pneumonoultra-        osis is too long
xtifr@debian.org       |  microscopicsilico-    to fit into a single
or xtifr@speakeasy.net |  volcaniconi-          standalone haiku