> On Tue, Apr 19, 2011 at 12:02 AM, Daniel Becroft > <djcbecr...@gmail.com> wrote: > > On Tue, Apr 19, 2011 at 7:29 AM, Alex Vincent > <ajvinc...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> > >> I'm currently in the process of updating copyright notices where > I work. > >> To me, this is an ideal place for a SVN keyword: > >> > >> Copyright 2008-$Year$ MyCompany > >> > >> The SVN keywords listed in the online documentation list Date, > but it's > >> far too specific for a copyright. As an alternate, perhaps a > special > >> formatting keyword for dates could be established: > $Date(YYYY)$, for > >> example. > > > > AFAIK, the $Date keyword works off the last time the particular > file was > > updated. Are you expecting this new $Year$ value to always be > current (ie > > 2011), or only reflect the year in which the file was last > modified (ie > > 2009)? > > IANAL and slightly OT, but... are you legally allowed to update the > copyright date without making a copyrightable modification of the > file? > If not; no tool can help you.
A copyright notice is not necessary but recommended. The copyright notice applies to the "work" so, the whole program is the work. Putting a notice on every file is not required. However, the copyright notice applies to the work, so even if a specific file hasn't been changed the notice should be the same on every file, in your documentation, on your distribution media and probably displayed on a startup/splash screen/about page. Also, if you don't publish the source, the notice in the source is probably not needed. The date listed is the publication date. Also, any time you publish a substatial change it is a new "work" so the date should be updated. Usually all the publish dates are listed... Copyright 2010 Big Software, Inc. if you modify it and put out a release in 2011 you change it to: Copyright 2010-2011 Big Software, Inc. no changes until 2014 you would do: Copyright 2010-2011, 2014 Big Software, Inc. So, I wouldn't want this automatically done. I would recommend you use a copyright.txt file with the notice and have your build system or something inject it. BTW: IANAL either. BOb
