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1 How to Maintain Copyright Years for GNU Emacs
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2 (see also file "copyright" in this directory)
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3
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4 "Our lawyer says it is ok if we add, to each file that has been in Emacs
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5 since Emacs 21 came out in 2001, all the subsequent years[1]. We don't
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6 need to check whether *that file* was changed in those years.
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7 It's sufficient that *Emacs* was changed in those years (and it was!).
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8
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9 For those files that have been added since then, we should add
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10 the year it was added to Emacs, and all subsequent years."
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11
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12 --RMS, 2005-07-13
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13
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14 [1] Note that this includes 2001 - see
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15 <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-pretest-bug/2006-12/msg00119.html>
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16
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17
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18 For the refcards under etc/, it's ok to simply use the latest year
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19 (typically in a `\def\year{YEAR}' expression) for the rendered copyright
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20 notice, while maintaining the full list of years in the copyright notice
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21 in the comments.
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22
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23 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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24
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25
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26 Following is the policy that we tried to write down one time (mid 2005).
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27 Although it is incorrect, we keep it around to remind us how complicated
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28 things used to be (and may become in the future).
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29
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30
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31 Principle: Individual files need to have the year of the release
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32 in the copyright notice if there is significant change.
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33
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34
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35 Practice:
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36
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37 - individual files
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38 - each must be examined, along w/ its history, by a human
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39 - automated tools facilitate but can never replace this process
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40
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41 - year of the release
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42 - may be different from year of file introduction,
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43 or year of last significant change
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44 - sometimes the release year slips, leaving a file w/ prematurely
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45 marked release year => need update (e.g., s/2004/2005/ for Emacs 22)
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46 - intervening years (between releases) are not valid and may cause
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47 embarrassment later in case of dispute => remove (however, see next)
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48 - years for new files (merged, contributed) that have been separately
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49 published are valid even if between releases => leave alone
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50
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51 - significant change
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52 - insignificant
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53 - whitespace
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54 - copyright notice
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55 - version control tags
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56 - simple var/func renaming
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57 - in-file reorganization/reordering
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58 - typos
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59 - small bugfixes
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60 - small docfixes
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61 - filename renaming
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62 - most everything else is significant
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63 - change to interface
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64 - change in functionality
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65 - new file
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66 - many small changes may be significant in aggregate
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67
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68 - when in doubt, ask (and update these guidelines -- thanks!)
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69
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70 - sometimes people make mistakes
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71 - if they have not read these guidelines, point them here
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72 - if the guidelines are not helpful, improve the guidelines
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