RFA: Using year ranges in copyright notices...

RFA: Using year ranges in copyright notices...

[Joel Brobecker]

Hello,

A bit of a trivial question, but I wanted to be sure it's OK to do so.
I would like us to use address ranges in our copyright headers, instead
of explicitly listing each and every year.  One striking example would
be valprint.c:

-   Copyright (C) 1986, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996,
-   1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008,
-   2009, 2010, 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+   Copyright (C) 1986, 1988-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

Here is how it would look like for typeprint.h, for instance:

-   Copyright (C) 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991-1993, 1999, 2000, 2007, 2008, 2009,
-   2010, 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+   Copyright (C) 1986, 1988-1989, 1991-1993, 1999-2000, 2007-2012 Free
+   Software Foundation, Inc.

Any objection? A quick answer would be appreciated, as I am planning
on folding this change with the copyright year update commit.
Committing this massive change takes a lot of time, so I'd rather
only have to do one of them.

Thanks,
-- 
Joel

Re: RFA: Using year ranges in copyright notices...

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Tue, 3 Jan 2012 08:24:31 +0400
> From: Joel Brobecker <brobecker@adacore.com>
> 
> A bit of a trivial question, but I wanted to be sure it's OK to do so.
> I would like us to use address ranges in our copyright headers, instead
> of explicitly listing each and every year.

This needs to be cleared with lawyers @gnu.org.  At least at some
point, Richard explicitly asked _not_ to use ranges, due to some legal
issues, and I don't think I saw that restriction lifted since then.

At the very least, we should ask Richard about that.

Re: RFA: Using year ranges in copyright notices...

[Alfred M. Szmidt]

   > A bit of a trivial question, but I wanted to be sure it's OK to do so.
   > I would like us to use address ranges in our copyright headers, instead
   > of explicitly listing each and every year.

   This needs to be cleared with lawyers @gnu.org.  At least at some
   point, Richard explicitly asked _not_ to use ranges, due to some
   legal issues, and I don't think I saw that restriction lifted since
   then.

   At the very least, we should ask Richard about that.

It is documented in (maintain) Copyright Notices:

|    You can use a range (`2008-2010') instead of listing individual
| years (`2008, 2009, 2010') if and only if: 1) every year in the range,
| inclusive, really is a "copyrightable" year that would be listed
| individually; _and_ 2) you make an explicit statement in a `README'
| file about this usage.

Re: RFA: Using year ranges in copyright notices...

[Joel Brobecker]

> It is documented in (maintain) Copyright Notices:
> 
> |    You can use a range (`2008-2010') instead of listing individual
> | years (`2008, 2009, 2010') if and only if: 1) every year in the range,
> | inclusive, really is a "copyrightable" year that would be listed
> | individually; _and_ 2) you make an explicit statement in a `README'
> | file about this usage.

Excellent. Thank you both for your help. Condition (1) will be met,
and I will see about (2).

-- 
Joel

Re: RFA: Using year ranges in copyright notices...

[Joel Brobecker]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1189 bytes --]

> > A bit of a trivial question, but I wanted to be sure it's OK to do so.
> > I would like us to use address ranges in our copyright headers, instead
> > of explicitly listing each and every year.

Here is a patch for updating README to satisfy the requirements
in the GNU maintainers guide ("Information for Maintainers of GNU
Software").

I am assuming that it's trivial enough that no one will really object.
But if you do, please let me know! I do think it's for the better,
because some of these files are starting to have an awfully long list
of years...

I didn't make the same update in the gdbserver/README file, for two
reasons:
  - gdbserver/ is part of the GDB project;
  - The contents of gdbserver/README should be mostly inside
    either of the GDB manuals (Wiki entry in the "Project Ideas"
    added for that).

I put it at the end of the README because people wanting that
information will spend the effort of locating it. Most people,
I assume, are more interested in how to build GDB than what
a range of years in the copyright notice means precisely...

gdb/ChangeLog:

        * README (Copyright and License Notices): New section.

OK to commit?

Thanks,
-- 
Joel

[-- Attachment #2: readme.diff --]
[-- Type: text/x-diff, Size: 1446 bytes --]

commit 089b330595e021c7aad754210ac0f508d04d6f0a
Author: Joel Brobecker <brobecker@adacore.com>
Date:   Tue Jan 3 12:41:50 2012 +0400

    [README] Add not about copyright and license notices
    
    Also explain the use of year ranges in copyright notices.
    
    gdb/ChangeLog:
    
            * README (Copyright and License Notices): New section.

diff --git a/gdb/README b/gdb/README
index d79fecc..422551a 100644
--- a/gdb/README
+++ b/gdb/README
@@ -638,6 +638,28 @@ testsuite `standalone', without it being part of the GDB source tree.
 
 See the DejaGNU documentation for further details.
 
+
+Copyright and License Notices
+=============================
+
+Most files maintained by the GDB Project contain a copyright notice
+as well as a license notice, usually at the start of the file.  The
+copyright notice should list all the years during which nontrivial
+changes have been made to that file.
+
+To reduce the length of copyright notices, consecutive years in the
+copyright notice can be combined into a single range.  For instance,
+the following list of copyright years...
+
+    1986, 1988, 1989, 1991-1993, 1999, 2000, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011
+
+... is abbreviated into:
+
+    1986, 1988-1989, 1991-1993, 1999-2000, 2007-2012
+
+Such ranges are used when nontrivial changes were made to that file
+each and every year in the range (inclusive).
+
 \f
 (this is for editing this file with GNU emacs)
 Local Variables:

Re: RFA: Using year ranges in copyright notices...

[Yao Qi]

On 01/03/2012 04:52 PM, Joel Brobecker wrote:
> +To reduce the length of copyright notices, consecutive years in the
> +copyright notice can be combined into a single range.  For instance,
> +the following list of copyright years...
> +
> +    1986, 1988, 1989, 1991-1993, 1999, 2000, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011

Joel, I guess 2012 is missed here... :)

> +
> +... is abbreviated into:
> +
> +    1986, 1988-1989, 1991-1993, 1999-2000, 2007-2012
                                                   ^^^^
... or, we replace 2012 with 2011.

-- 
Yao (齐尧)

Re: RFA: Using year ranges in copyright notices...

[Joel Brobecker]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 254 bytes --]

> > +    1986, 1988-1989, 1991-1993, 1999-2000, 2007-2012
>                                                    ^^^^
> ... or, we replace 2012 with 2011.

I don't know what you're talking about ;-). New patch attached.
Thanks for spotting this.

-- 
Joel

[-- Attachment #2: readme.diff --]
[-- Type: text/x-diff, Size: 1446 bytes --]

commit c0efce94dbcaa24395a1b2284aaea288c86247dd
Author: Joel Brobecker <brobecker@adacore.com>
Date:   Tue Jan 3 12:41:50 2012 +0400

    [README] Add not about copyright and license notices
    
    Also explain the use of year ranges in copyright notices.
    
    gdb/ChangeLog:
    
            * README (Copyright and License Notices): New section.

diff --git a/gdb/README b/gdb/README
index d79fecc..501bb65 100644
--- a/gdb/README
+++ b/gdb/README
@@ -638,6 +638,28 @@ testsuite `standalone', without it being part of the GDB source tree.
 
 See the DejaGNU documentation for further details.
 
+
+Copyright and License Notices
+=============================
+
+Most files maintained by the GDB Project contain a copyright notice
+as well as a license notice, usually at the start of the file.  The
+copyright notice should list all the years during which nontrivial
+changes have been made to that file.
+
+To reduce the length of copyright notices, consecutive years in the
+copyright notice can be combined into a single range.  For instance,
+the following list of copyright years...
+
+    1986, 1988, 1989, 1991-1993, 1999, 2000, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011
+
+... is abbreviated into:
+
+    1986, 1988-1989, 1991-1993, 1999-2000, 2007-2011
+
+Such ranges are used when nontrivial changes were made to that file
+each and every year in the range (inclusive).
+
 \f
 (this is for editing this file with GNU emacs)
 Local Variables:

Re: RFA: Using year ranges in copyright notices...

[Joseph S. Myers]

On Tue, 3 Jan 2012, Joel Brobecker wrote:

> +Such ranges are used when nontrivial changes were made to that file
> +each and every year in the range (inclusive).

The FSF rule for listing a year is "nontrivial changes to the package" 
rather than "to that file" (this is the basis on which it's OK to update 
the year in all files at the start of the year).  As I understand it, this 
combines with the rule about ranges to allow "<first-year>-2012" for every 
file (at least, if there is some version in version control from each year 
in the range).

-- 
Joseph S. Myers
joseph@codesourcery.com

Re: RFA: Using year ranges in copyright notices...

[Joel Brobecker]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 701 bytes --]

> > +Such ranges are used when nontrivial changes were made to that file
> > +each and every year in the range (inclusive).
> 
> The FSF rule for listing a year is "nontrivial changes to the package" 
> rather than "to that file" (this is the basis on which it's OK to update 
> the year in all files at the start of the year).  As I understand it, this 
> combines with the rule about ranges to allow "<first-year>-2012" for every 
> file (at least, if there is some version in version control from each year 
> in the range).

That's a good point, thank you.

I propose we simply remove that sentence, then. It's not really
all that necessary, after all. Here is a new revision.

Thoughts?
-- 
Joel

[-- Attachment #2: readme.diff --]
[-- Type: text/x-diff, Size: 1335 bytes --]

commit 04d2588d202f0bc2f49e68aff22c152ec8cd277a
Author: Joel Brobecker <brobecker@adacore.com>
Date:   Tue Jan 3 12:41:50 2012 +0400

    [README] Add not about copyright and license notices
    
    Also explain the use of year ranges in copyright notices.
    
    gdb/ChangeLog:
    
            * README (Copyright and License Notices): New section.

diff --git a/gdb/README b/gdb/README
index d79fecc..7ffe90a 100644
--- a/gdb/README
+++ b/gdb/README
@@ -638,6 +638,26 @@ testsuite `standalone', without it being part of the GDB source tree.
 
 See the DejaGNU documentation for further details.
 
+
+Copyright and License Notices
+=============================
+
+Most files maintained by the GDB Project contain a copyright notice
+as well as a license notice, usually at the start of the file.
+
+To reduce the length of copyright notices, consecutive years in the
+copyright notice can be combined into a single range.  For instance,
+the following list of copyright years...
+
+    1986, 1988, 1989, 1991-1993, 1999, 2000, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011
+
+... is abbreviated into:
+
+    1986, 1988-1989, 1991-1993, 1999-2000, 2007-2011
+
+Such ranges are used when nontrivial changes were made to that file
+each and every year in the range (inclusive).
+
 \f
 (this is for editing this file with GNU emacs)
 Local Variables:

Re: RFA: Using year ranges in copyright notices...

[Jan Kratochvil]

On Tue, 03 Jan 2012 17:02:22 +0100, Joel Brobecker wrote:
> > The FSF rule for listing a year is "nontrivial changes to the package" 
> > rather than "to that file" (this is the basis on which it's OK to update 
> > the year in all files at the start of the year).  As I understand it, this 
> > combines with the rule about ranges to allow "<first-year>-2012" for every 
> > file (at least, if there is some version in version control from each year 
> > in the range).
[...]
> +Copyright and License Notices
> +=============================
> +
> +Most files maintained by the GDB Project contain a copyright notice
> +as well as a license notice, usually at the start of the file.
> +
> +To reduce the length of copyright notices, consecutive years in the
> +copyright notice can be combined into a single range.  For instance,
> +the following list of copyright years...
> +
> +    1986, 1988, 1989, 1991-1993, 1999, 2000, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011
> +
> +... is abbreviated into:
> +
> +    1986, 1988-1989, 1991-1993, 1999-2000, 2007-2011
> +
> +Such ranges are used when nontrivial changes were made to that file
> +each and every year in the range (inclusive).

This last sentence still contradict's the Joseph's comment / the FSF
statement:
	http://www.gnu.org/prep/maintain/maintain.html#Copyright-Notices
	To update the list of year numbers, add each year in which you have
	made nontrivial changes to the package.

As you automatically update all the files not each of the files will get
a nontrivial change for that year (2012 now).

IIUC this would allow us to write 1986-2011 everywhere as the GDB package was
nontrivially modified each of these years.  Just restating Joseph.


Thanks,
Jan

Re: RFA: Using year ranges in copyright notices...

[Joel Brobecker]

> This last sentence still contradict's the Joseph's comment / the FSF
> statement:

Yes, you are right. I'm doing everything too fast. I will send
a new version tomorrow.

> IIUC this would allow us to write 1986-2011 everywhere as the GDB package was
> nontrivially modified each of these years.  Just restating Joseph.

That's what I understood too. But I just went with what update-copyright
does for now.  We can discuss the suggested simplification, but can we
wait for next week/month/year? :-).

-- 
Joel

Re: RFA: Using year ranges in copyright notices...

[Joel Brobecker]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 395 bytes --]

OK, this is the latest version. I am more or less copy/pasting
the text from the maintainers' manual, so hopefully OK>

I'm about to work on updating the copyright years, so I've committed
this one. Eli, let me know if there are any additional changes you
would like me to make. I will make them within the day.

gdb/ChangeLog:

	* README (Copyright and License Notices): New section.

-- 
Joel

[-- Attachment #2: readme.diff --]
[-- Type: text/x-diff, Size: 1627 bytes --]

commit f411a6ac0f301c50f5271aff830b84f4b70e0858
Author: Joel Brobecker <brobecker@adacore.com>
Date:   Tue Jan 3 12:41:50 2012 +0400

    [README] Add note about copyright and license notices
    
    Also explain the use of year ranges in copyright notices.
    
    gdb/ChangeLog:
    
            * README (Copyright and License Notices): New section.

diff --git a/gdb/ChangeLog b/gdb/ChangeLog
index 266f387..b68d64c 100644
--- a/gdb/ChangeLog
+++ b/gdb/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+2012-01-04  Joel Brobecker  <brobecker@adacore.com>
+
+	* README (Copyright and License Notices): New section.
+
 2012-01-03  Tom Tromey  <tromey@redhat.com>
 
 	PR python/12533:
diff --git a/gdb/README b/gdb/README
index d79fecc..999f992 100644
--- a/gdb/README
+++ b/gdb/README
@@ -638,6 +638,26 @@ testsuite `standalone', without it being part of the GDB source tree.
 
 See the DejaGNU documentation for further details.
 
+
+Copyright and License Notices
+=============================
+
+Most files maintained by the GDB Project contain a copyright notice
+as well as a license notice, usually at the start of the file.
+
+To reduce the length of copyright notices, consecutive years in the
+copyright notice can be combined into a single range.  For instance,
+the following list of copyright years...
+
+    1986, 1988, 1989, 1991-1993, 1999, 2000, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011
+
+... is abbreviated into:
+
+    1986, 1988-1989, 1991-1993, 1999-2000, 2007-2011
+
+Every year of each range, inclusive, is a copyrightable year that
+could be listed individually.
+
 \f
 (this is for editing this file with GNU emacs)
 Local Variables:

Re: RFA: Using year ranges in copyright notices...

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Wed, 4 Jan 2012 08:14:57 +0400
> From: Joel Brobecker <brobecker@adacore.com>
> Cc: Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>
> 
> Eli, let me know if there are any additional changes you would like
> me to make. I will make them within the day.

Looks fine, thanks.

Re: RFA: Using year ranges in copyright notices...

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Tue, 3 Jan 2012 12:52:34 +0400
> From: Joel Brobecker <brobecker@adacore.com>
> Cc: gdb-patches@sourceware.org
> 
> Here is a patch for updating README to satisfy the requirements
> in the GNU maintainers guide ("Information for Maintainers of GNU
> Software").

Fine with me, thanks.