documentation on copyright headers?

documentation on copyright headers?

[Wilko Meyer]

Hi Guix,

The "The Perfect Set-Up" chapter of guixes manual describes how to set
up copyright.el to support the process of inserting/updating ones
copyright header; however it doesn't answer:

- why a copyright header has to be inserted
- if a copyright header has to be inserted for all files that are
  subject to changes (is there a treshold? can it be left out for minor
  changes to files etc.?) of a sent patch.

I'm not too knowledgable in copyright law to answer these things myself
and would guess, that explaining this briefly could be useful in guixes
documentation on contributions.

-- 
Kind regards,

Wilko Meyer
w@wmeyer.eu

Re: documentation on copyright headers?

[Felix Lechner via]

Hi Wilko,

On Thu, Nov 16 2023, Wilko Meyer wrote:

> - why a copyright header has to be inserted
> - if a copyright header has to be inserted for all files that are
>   subject to changes (is there a treshold? can it be left out for minor
>   changes to files etc.?) of a sent patch.

For a definitive answer, you should consult an attorney; I have no legal
training.

I believe an important aspect for our collective copyright protection is
that the current year is listed. I always insert my own name, even for
minor edits, when no one else has touched a file in a while.

For an active project like Guix, I personally tend not to add copyright
notices unless I create a new file or unless my contribution appears so
significant that another party would have to expend some effort in order
to recreate it.

Either way, it's better to add copyright notices. In case of doubt,
please add one regardless of what people say.

Kind regards
Felix

Re: documentation on copyright headers?

[pelzflorian (Florian Pelz)]

Hello.

Felix Lechner via <help-guix@gnu.org> writes:
> For an active project like Guix, I personally tend not to add copyright
> notices unless I create a new file or unless my contribution appears so
> significant that another party would have to expend some effort in order
> to recreate it.
>
> Either way, it's better to add copyright notices. In case of doubt,
> please add one regardless of what people say.

IANAL, but even small contributions of code should be given a copyright
header, because when the same person makes many small code
contributions, these add up.  This does not mean that someone who is in
the copyright headers already really has copyright, as I believe could
be seen in the SFC vs. VMWare lawsuit.

Regards,
Florian

Re: documentation on copyright headers?

[Simon Tournier]

Hi,

On Thu, 16 Nov 2023 at 15:39, Wilko Meyer <w@wmeyer.eu> wrote:

> - why a copyright header has to be inserted
> - if a copyright header has to be inserted for all files that are
>   subject to changes (is there a treshold? can it be left out for minor
>   changes to files etc.?) of a sent patch.

As a rule of thumb, each time your change is non-trivial – say more than
5 modified or new lines in one specific file – it deserves a Copyright
header on that specific file.  Note that deleting only does not count,
i.e., Copyright does not apply

In the past, the project had been very permissive, where even 2 lines
only modifying the version and checksum fields lead to hold a Copyright
on such modification.  Now, it should be avoided, IMHO.

Cheers,
simon

Re: documentation on copyright headers?

[pelzflorian (Florian Pelz)]

Simon Tournier <zimon.toutoune@gmail.com> writes:
> In the past, the project had been very permissive, where even 2 lines
> only modifying the version and checksum fields lead to hold a Copyright
> on such modification.

In practice, I agree.  Changing the version and checksum of 100 packages
likely does not add up and does not give copyright (it is no creative
act).  Though 4 lines of srfi-1 list processing perhaps do give
copyright.

That said, copyright headers are only for tracking copyright.  They do
not anymore AFAIK help in the legal system (in EU and USA) and are not
always accurate (parts of Guix’ package descriptions and service
documentation are copied from the package’s developer, but that
developer’s copyright is mentioned nowhere).

Regards,
Florian

Re: documentation on copyright headers?

[Maxim Cournoyer]

Hi,

Simon Tournier <zimon.toutoune@gmail.com> writes:

> Hi,
>
> On Thu, 16 Nov 2023 at 15:39, Wilko Meyer <w@wmeyer.eu> wrote:
>
>> - why a copyright header has to be inserted
>> - if a copyright header has to be inserted for all files that are
>>   subject to changes (is there a treshold? can it be left out for minor
>>   changes to files etc.?) of a sent patch.
>
> As a rule of thumb, each time your change is non-trivial – say more than
> 5 modified or new lines in one specific file – it deserves a Copyright
> header on that specific file.  Note that deleting only does not count,
> i.e., Copyright does not apply
>
> In the past, the project had been very permissive, where even 2 lines
> only modifying the version and checksum fields lead to hold a Copyright
> on such modification.  Now, it should be avoided, IMHO.

I think it should be avoided as well, the long list of copyrights are
already a bit messy to maintain across trees :-).

info '(maintain) Legally Significant' offers as advice that changes of
15 lines or less or not legally significant for copyright.

-- 
Thanks,
Maxim

Re: documentation on copyright headers?

[Simon Tournier]

Hi,

On Sun, 03 Dec 2023 at 14:09, Maxim Cournoyer <maxim.cournoyer@gmail.com> wrote:

> I think it should be avoided as well, the long list of copyrights are
> already a bit messy to maintain across trees :-).

In addition to the current mess, we also keep Copyright header even if
the code holding such Copyright had been removed since.  Legally
speaking, I think – although I am not totally sure – the copyright
applies to the current source code and not to the history of additions.

> info '(maintain) Legally Significant' offers as advice that changes of
> 15 lines or less or not legally significant for copyright.

For the interested reader, it comes from the package ’gnu-standards’,
also online:

https://www.gnu.org/prep/maintain/html_node/Legally-Significant.html#Legally-Significant


Cheers,
simon

Re: documentation on copyright headers?

[Wilko Meyer]

Hi Simon,

Simon Tournier <zimon.toutoune@gmail.com> writes:

> For the interested reader, it comes from the package ’gnu-standards’,
> also online:
>
> https://www.gnu.org/prep/maintain/html_node/Legally-Significant.html#Legally-Significant

That's an interesting and good read; thanks for sharing! Though I always
wonder wether or not GNUs stance on this takes into account that US and
EU copyright law may differ or if it's written from a more US focused
perspective? I guess I'll try to read up on that a bit more.

-- 
Kind regards,

Wilko Meyer
w@wmeyer.eu