On 02/16/2015 13:01, Rich Freeman wrote: > On Mon, Feb 16, 2015 at 11:02 AM, Joshua Kinard <ku...@gentoo.org> wrote: >> On 02/16/2015 09:04, Rich Freeman wrote: >>> I do think that moving to a cleaner policy makes a lot of sense. The >>> problem is that doing this sort of thing right potentially involves a >>> lot of work as well. Maybe another approach is to just ditch per-file >>> copyrights entirely (which a random perusal suggests is how Linux does >>> things), but that would STILL require stripping the copyright out of >>> these files with all the issues that entails, and limit our ability to >>> borrow license-compatible code. >> >> Focusing on the last paragraph here (but not snipping), my understanding is >> the >> kernel retains per-file copyrights. This is why the kernel is permanently >> wedded to GPLv2, because some of the contributors owning those copyrights >> have >> died and thus can no longer consent to changing to the GPLv3 (or any other >> OSI >> license, or copyright change). Trying to track down their appropriate heirs, >> explain the whole situation, and then seek a consent would be a >> near-impossible >> undertaking. Hence, permanent GPLv2. > > Perhaps I should have worded that better. > > s/per-file copyrights/per-file copyright notices/ > > Obviously the content of individual files will always be copyrighted > absent a release into the public domain. The Linux kernel just > doesn't stick notices on individual files that attempt to identify who > owns the copyright on what. Presumably that also means that if they > borrow a file from somewhere else they don't care to change the > copyright notice that was already there (or somehow they manage to > avoid the euthusiasm stirred up by removing said notices).
Well, I just sent a patch upstream that adds a new RTC driver to the kernel, and I added copyright to myself and the guy that created the original driver that I based off of to the top of the source file (and its header). So that practice is still used, and akpm recently added it to -mm with no comment on any of the copyright bits, so I must've gotten part that right. It's probably left to the person writing the specific source file(s) on how they want to do copyright, as long as they stick to recognized norms and GPLv2. -- Joshua Kinard Gentoo/MIPS ku...@gentoo.org 4096R/D25D95E3 2011-03-28 "The past tempts us, the present confuses us, the future frightens us. And our lives slip away, moment by moment, lost in that vast, terrible in-between." --Emperor Turhan, Centauri Republic
