Question about copyright lines
Hello, At the top of every fine there's are some "Copyright <year> <name>" lines, listing the persons who have contributed to a file, and when. Are there any specifc rules about that? Thanks, Stefan
On Fri, Mar 03, 2006 at 03:20:48PM +0100, Stefan Dösinger wrote:
Hello, At the top of every fine there's are some "Copyright <year> <name>" lines, listing the persons who have contributed to a file, and when. Are there any specifc rules about that?
If you make a significant contribution, just add yourself there. (significant in my eyes -> new feature, code rewrite or similar) Ciao, Marcus
Marcus Meissner <meissner <at> suse.de> writes:
On Fri, Mar 03, 2006 at 03:20:48PM +0100, Stefan Dösinger wrote:
Hello, At the top of every fine there's are some "Copyright <year> <name>" lines, listing the persons who have contributed to a file, and when. Are there any specifc rules about that?
If you make a significant contribution, just add yourself there.
(significant in my eyes -> new feature, code rewrite or similar)
Just to add to that, you should never delete existing copyright lines, unless you rewrite the entire file from scratch. Stefan, you might want to review (if you haven't already) http://winehq.com/site/sending_patches before submitting many more patches. It might save you (and AJ) a lot of wasted time and rejections. Regards, Aric
Aric Cyr wrote:
Marcus Meissner <meissner <at> suse.de> writes:
On Fri, Mar 03, 2006 at 03:20:48PM +0100, Stefan Dösinger wrote:
Hello, At the top of every fine there's are some "Copyright <year> <name>" lines, listing the persons who have contributed to a file, and when. Are there any specifc rules about that?
If you reverse the name and year, the copyright is invalid and unenforcable in the United States and many European states.
On 3/3/06, Segin <segin2005(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Aric Cyr wrote:
Marcus Meissner <meissner <at> suse.de> writes:
On Fri, Mar 03, 2006 at 03:20:48PM +0100, Stefan Dösinger wrote:
Hello, At the top of every fine there's are some "Copyright <year> <name>" lines, listing the persons who have contributed to a file, and when. Are there any specifc rules about that?
If you reverse the name and year, the copyright is invalid and unenforcable in the United States and many European states.
In the United States and the United Kingdom, that is certainly not true, and probably not in any other Berne Convention country ("Since the Berne Convention prohibits formal requirements that affect the "exercise and enjoyment" of the copyright, the United States changed its law on March 1, 1989, to make the use of a copyright notice optional."). See http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ03.pdf and http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl100.html for the United States, and http://www.patent.gov.uk/copy/indetail/copyclaim.htm and http://www.intellectual-property.gov.uk/faq/copyright/index.htm for the UK. "The use of a copyright notice is no longer required under U.S. law, although it is often beneficial." (circ03) "Although a few countries require that a work be marked with the international (c) mark followed by the name of the copyright owner and year of publication, this is not essential in most countries, including the UK." (copyclaim) "All the Western European countries, the USA and Russia belong to the Berne Convention which does not even require your work to be marked in any way for automatic protection to apply." (copyright faq) In the U.S., "The notice for visually perceptible copies should contain three elements. They should appear together or in close proximity on the copies. The elements are: 1 The symbol (c) (the letter C in a circle), or the word "Copyright," or the abbreviation "Copr."; and 2 The year of first publication...and... 3 The name of the owner of copyright in the work, or an abbreviation by which the name can be recognized, or a generally known alternative designation of the owner." (circ03) The elements just need to be in "close proximity" for the notice to be valid...and the notice itself is not strictly necessary for copyright protection, it's just useful for the lawyers if it gets challenged. (e.g. "There may still be instances, such as the defense of innocent infringement, where the question of proper notice may be a factor in assessing damages in infringement actions...The omission of notice does not affect the copyright protection, and no corrective steps are required if the work was published on or after March 1, 1989." (fl100)). For protection in countries which are signatories to the UCC but NOT the Berne Convention (I don't know of any offhand), the year and name do need to be in a specific order, AND you must also include the C-in-a-circle symbol (c). "To guarantee protection for a copyrighted work in all UCC member countries, the notice must consist of the symbol (c) (the word "Copyright" or the abbreviation are not acceptable), the year of first publication, and the name of the copyright proprietor." (circ03) Disclaimer: This message does not constitute legal advice. --Daniel Remenak
Daniel Remenak wrote:
On 3/3/06, Segin <segin2005(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Aric Cyr wrote:
Marcus Meissner <meissner <at> suse.de> writes:
On Fri, Mar 03, 2006 at 03:20:48PM +0100, Stefan D�singer wrote:
Hello, At the top of every fine there's are some "Copyright <year> <name>" lines, listing the persons who have contributed to a file, and when. Are there any specifc rules about that?
If you reverse the name and year, the copyright is invalid and unenforcable in the United States and many European states.
In the United States and the United Kingdom, that is certainly not true, and probably not in any other Berne Convention country ("Since the Berne Convention prohibits formal requirements that affect the "exercise and enjoyment" of the copyright, the United States changed its law on March 1, 1989, to make the use of a copyright notice optional."). See http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ03.pdf and http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl100.html for the United States, and http://www.patent.gov.uk/copy/indetail/copyclaim.htm and http://www.intellectual-property.gov.uk/faq/copyright/index.htm for the UK.
"The use of a copyright notice is no longer required under U.S. law, although it is often beneficial." (circ03) "Although a few countries require that a work be marked with the international (c) mark followed by the name of the copyright owner and year of publication, this is not essential in most countries, including the UK." (copyclaim) "All the Western European countries, the USA and Russia belong to the Berne Convention which does not even require your work to be marked in any way for automatic protection to apply." (copyright faq)
In the U.S., "The notice for visually perceptible copies should contain three elements. They should appear together or in close proximity on the copies. The elements are: 1 The symbol (c) (the letter C in a circle), or the word "Copyright," or the abbreviation "Copr."; and 2 The year of first publication...and... 3 The name of the owner of copyright in the work, or an abbreviation by which the name can be recognized, or a generally known alternative designation of the owner." (circ03)
The elements just need to be in "close proximity" for the notice to be valid...and the notice itself is not strictly necessary for copyright protection, it's just useful for the lawyers if it gets challenged. (e.g. "There may still be instances, such as the defense of innocent infringement, where the question of proper notice may be a factor in assessing damages in infringement actions...The omission of notice does not affect the copyright protection, and no corrective steps are required if the work was published on or after March 1, 1989." (fl100)).
For protection in countries which are signatories to the UCC but NOT the Berne Convention (I don't know of any offhand), the year and name do need to be in a specific order, AND you must also include the C-in-a-circle symbol (c). "To guarantee protection for a copyrighted work in all UCC member countries, the notice must consist of the symbol (c) (the word "Copyright" or the abbreviation are not acceptable), the year of first publication, and the name of the copyright proprietor." (circ03)
Disclaimer: This message does not constitute legal advice.
--Daniel Remenak
Ok, but you still need to put the copyright year/holder's name in a certain order, as your last paragraph said. Just not nessessrary for most countries.
On Saturday 04 March 2006 12:32, Segin wrote:
For protection in countries which are signatories to the UCC but NOT the Berne Convention (I don't know of any offhand), the year and name
...
Ok, but you still need to put the copyright year/holder's name in a certain order, as your last paragraph said. Just not nessessrary for most countries.
Since accession to the Berne Convention is a requirement for membership of the WTO, parties (not signatories, which is a different thing with little practical meaning) to the UCC who are not parties to the Berne Convention are such a small set now that it is probably not worth worrying about. These days the copyright notice has more value as: a means of giving credit; a means of letting others know who they need to ask if they wish to do something outside the license; and a method to assist distant future users of materials in identifying when a work enters the public domain. -- Troy Rollo - wine(a)troy.rollo.name
Just to add to that, you should never delete existing copyright lines, unless you rewrite the entire file from scratch. I copied all copyright lines from a file if I took code from it to a new file. The only file "exception" is dlls/ddraw/direct3d.c in my new ddraw implementation, as I've re-written that file.
If I accidentally dropped someone's copyright line, just send me a note and I'll correct it. (Marcus, Lionel, Transgaming). But I'll try to get them right. My first plan was to check the authors of every function / code segment took over(There's not really much, except of thunks and old IDirect3DLight/Material/Viewport interfaces, where the whole files were copied), but that's almost impossible as ddraw was mainly coded in 1998-2000, and Wine-CVS starts in 2001.
participants (6)
-
Aric Cyr -
Daniel Remenak -
Marcus Meissner -
Segin -
Stefan Dösinger -
Troy Rollo