Re: Patch for Copyright Notices in maintain.texi [WAS: Re: Approving Dezyne, savannah task 16067]

[Alfred M. Szmidt]

The issue is that the rule of thumb is used as a Le Grand K.

        > Yes, I believe we need a better rule of thumb than the 10-lines
        > suggestion.

   That is good, as a rule of thumb.  It is not exactly correct,
   but no simple rule of thumb is going to be exactly correct.

Clearly, it is not good -- since we keep aruging over if those ten
lines of 11223344556677 are copyrightable or not.  This is exactly the
situation that occured multiple times now.

Janneke suggested a wording that is better than what we currently
have.  Did you read it?  Attachaed at end of message.  


       @node Copyright Notices
       @section Copyright Notices
       @cindex copyright notices in program files

       You should maintain a proper copyright notice and a license
       notice in each nontrivial file in the package.  As a rule of thumb,
       any interesting file more than ten lines long should be considered and
       could be nontrivial for this purpose.  This includes header files
       and interface definitions for
       building or running the program, documentation files, and any supporting
       files.  If a file has been explicitly placed in the public domain, then
       instead of a copyright notice, it should have a notice saying explicitly
       that it is in the public domain.

       Even image files, sound files, and other (ASCII) data files should
       contain copyright notices and license notices, if their format
       permits.  Some formats do not reasonably have room for textual
       annotations, or adding a header would be very inconvenient; for such
       files, state the copyright and copying permissions in a @file{README}
       file, preferrably in the same directory.

       Change log files should have a copyright notice and license notice at
       the end, since new material is added at the beginning but the end
       remains the end.

       When a file is automatically generated from some other file in the
       distribution, it is useful for the automatic procedure to copy the
       copyright notice and permission notice of the file it is generated
       from, if possible.  Alternatively, putting a notice at the beginning
       saying which file it is generated from, such as

       @example
       // Generated by tool-x from file file-y
       @end example

       is encouraged and preferred.  If the format does not (easily) support
       such a comment, for example test baseline data, state the copyright
       and copying permissions in a @file{README} file, preferrably in the
       same directory.

       If a header can be added without any complications that is always
       preferred; please make a balanced choice here.  The important thing to
       keep in mind is that there cannot be any discussion about the
       copyright and license status of any file.  For example, a whole
       directory tree with a similar layout such as a test suite with
       generated baseline data should probably use one toplevel @file{README}
       file describing how to generate the test baseline data, instead of
       hundreds of similar or identical @file{README} files.

       Another example is small code snippets that are included verbatim in
       the (texinfo) documentation and can also be processed directly by the
       program being documented.  Because the example is included as an
       integral part of the documentation, it is covered automatically by the
       copyright and license of the manual.  Adding a @file{README} file in
       this case is encouraged.



   [2/2:text/x-patch Hide]

   Index: maintain.texi
   ===================================================================
   RCS file: /sources/gnustandards/gnustandards/maintain.texi,v
   retrieving revision 1.283
   diff -u -r1.283 maintain.texi
   --- maintain.texi    27 Feb 2022 04:00:30 -0000      1.283
   +++ maintain.texi    8 Jan 2023 11:38:29 -0000
   @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
    @c For double-sided printing, uncomment:
    @c @setchapternewpage odd
    @c This date is automagically updated when you save this file:
   -@set lastupdate February 26, 2022
   +@set lastupdate January 8, 2023
    @c %**end of header
    @documentencoding UTF-8

   @@ -675,18 +675,21 @@
    @cindex copyright notices in program files

    You should maintain a proper copyright notice and a license
   -notice in each nontrivial file in the package.  (Any file more than ten
   -lines long is nontrivial for this purpose.)  This includes header files
   +notice in each nontrivial file in the package.  As a rule of thumb,
   +any interesting file more than ten lines long should be considered and
   +could be nontrivial for this purpose.  This includes header files
    and interface definitions for
    building or running the program, documentation files, and any supporting
    files.  If a file has been explicitly placed in the public domain, then
    instead of a copyright notice, it should have a notice saying explicitly
    that it is in the public domain.

   -Even image files and sound files should contain copyright notices and
   -license notices, if their format permits.  Some formats do not have
   -room for textual annotations; for these files, state the copyright and
   -copying permissions in a @file{README} file in the same directory.
   +Even image files, sound files, and other (ASCII) data files should
   +contain copyright notices and license notices, if their format
   +permits.  Some formats do not reasonably have room for textual
   +annotations, or adding a header would be very inconvenient; for such
   +files, state the copyright and copying permissions in a @file{README}
   +file, preferrably in the same directory.

    Change log files should have a copyright notice and license notice at
    the end, since new material is added at the beginning but the end
   @@ -695,8 +698,33 @@
    When a file is automatically generated from some other file in the
    distribution, it is useful for the automatic procedure to copy the
    copyright notice and permission notice of the file it is generated
   -from, if possible.  Alternatively, put a notice at the beginning saying
   -which file it is generated from.
   +from, if possible.  Alternatively, putting a notice at the beginning
   +saying which file it is generated from, such as
   +
   +@example
   +// Generated by tool-x from file file-y
   +@end example
   +
   +is encouraged and preferred.  If the format does not (easily) support
   +such a comment, for example test baseline data, state the copyright
   +and copying permissions in a @file{README} file, preferrably in the
   +same directory.
   +
   +If a header can be added without any complications that is always
   +preferred; please make a balanced choice here.  The important thing to
   +keep in mind is that there cannot be any discussion about the
   +copyright and license status of any file.  For example, a whole
   +directory tree with a similar layout such as a test suite with
   +generated baseline data should probably use one toplevel @file{README}
   +file describing how to generate the test baseline data, instead of
   +hundreds of similar or identical @file{README} files.
   +
   +Another example is small code snippets that are included verbatim in
   +the (texinfo) documentation and can also be processed directly by the
   +program being documented.  Because the example is included as an
   +integral part of the documentation, it is covered automatically by the
   +copyright and license of the manual.  Adding a @file{README} file in
   +this case is encouraged.

    A copyright notice looks like this: