Mercurial > emacs
comparison admin/notes/copyright @ 75465:34448acdaf7e
Initial version.
author | Glenn Morris <rgm@gnu.org> |
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date | Sun, 28 Jan 2007 02:51:26 +0000 |
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children | f7861c313ea4 |
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1 NOTES ON COPYRIGHTS AND LICENSES | |
2 | |
3 Some terminology: | |
4 | |
5 A "copyright notice" consists of one or a few lines of this format: | |
6 "Copyright (C) 2006, 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc." | |
7 | |
8 A "license notice" is a statement of permissions, and is usually much | |
9 longer, eg the text "GNU Emacs is free software...". | |
10 | |
11 | |
12 Every non-trivial file distributed through the Emacs CVS should be | |
13 self-explanatory in terms of copyright and license. This includes | |
14 files that are not distributed in Emacs releases (for example, the | |
15 admin/ directory), because the whole Emacs CVS is publicly | |
16 available. | |
17 | |
18 The definition of triviality is a little vague, but a rule of thumb is | |
19 that any file with less than 15 lines of actual content is trivial. If | |
20 a file is auto-generated (eg ldefs-boot.el) from another one in the | |
21 CVS, then it does not really matter about adding a copyright statement | |
22 to the generated file. | |
23 | |
24 The years in the copyright notice should be updated every year (see | |
25 file "years" in this directory). The PS versions of refcards etc | |
26 should display copyright notices (an exception to the rule about | |
27 "generated" files), but these can just display the latest year. The | |
28 full list of years should be kept in comments in the source file. If | |
29 these are distributed in CVS, check in a regenerated version when the | |
30 tex files are updated. | |
31 | |
32 Copyright changes should be propagated to any associated repositories | |
33 (eg Gnus, MH-E), but I think in every case this happens automatically | |
34 (?). | |
35 | |
36 All README (and other such text files) that are non-trivial and were | |
37 added by Emacs developers need copyright and copying permission | |
38 statements (see eg INSTALL in the top-level directory). | |
39 | |
40 All images files that allow for comments should have copyright and | |
41 license statements. Whether or not this is possible, the information | |
42 should be recorded in a README file in each directory with images. | |
43 | |
44 When installing a file with an "unusual" license (after checking first | |
45 it is ok), put a copy of the copyright and license in the file (if | |
46 possible. It's ok if this makes the file incompatible with its | |
47 original format, if it can still be used by Emacs), or in a README | |
48 file in the relevant directory. | |
49 | |
50 The vast majority of files are copyright FSF and distributed under the | |
51 GPL. A few files (mainly related to language and charset support) are | |
52 copyright AIST alone, or both AIST and FSF. (Contact Kenichi Handa | |
53 with questions about legal issues in such files.) In all these cases, | |
54 the copyright years in each file should be updated each year. | |
55 | |
56 There are some exceptions to the points in the previous paragraph, and | |
57 these are listed below for reference, together with any files where | |
58 the copyright needs to be updated in "unusual" ways. | |
59 | |
60 If you find any other such cases, please consult to check they are ok, | |
61 and note them in this file. This includes missing copyright notices, | |
62 and "odd" copyright holders. In most cases, individual authors should | |
63 not appear in copyright statements. Either the copyright has been | |
64 assigned (check copyright.list) to the FSF (in which case the original | |
65 author should be removed and the year(s) transferred to the FSF); or | |
66 else it is possible the file should not be in Emacs at all (please | |
67 report!). | |
68 | |
69 [For reference, most of these points were established via email with | |
70 rms, 2007/1, "Copyright years".] | |
71 | |
72 | |
73 <top-level>/install-sh | |
74 lispintro/install-sh | |
75 - this file is copyright MIT, which is OK. Leave the copyright alone. | |
76 | |
77 etc/edt-user.doc | |
78 - update BOTH notices in this file | |
79 | |
80 leim/CXTERM-DIC/4Corner.tit, ARRAY30.tit, [CCDOSPY.tit], ECDICT.tit, | |
81 ETZY.tit, [PY-b5.tit], Punct-b5.tit, Punct.tit, QJ-b5.tit, QJ.tit, | |
82 [SW.tit, TONEPY.tit,] ZOZY.tit | |
83 - leave the copyrights alone. | |
84 | |
85 leim/MISC-DIC/CTLau-b5.html, CTLau.html, cangjie-table.b5, cangjie-table.cns, | |
86 [pinyin.map, ziranma.cin] | |
87 - leave the copyright alone. | |
88 | |
89 leim/SKK-DIC/SKK-JISYO.L | |
90 ja-dic/ja-dic.el | |
91 (the latter is auto-generated from the former). Leave the copyright alone. | |
92 | |
93 lib-src/etags.c | |
94 - this has a copyright Ken Arnold. We are still deciding what should | |
95 be done here (see below). | |
96 | |
97 lib-src/getopt1.c, getopt_int.h | |
98 - these are from the GNU C library. Leave the copyrights alone. | |
99 | |
100 lispref/doclicense.texi | |
101 man/doclicense.texi | |
102 - leave the copyright alone in this imported file. | |
103 | |
104 lisp/net/tramp.el | |
105 - there are also copyrights in the body of the file. Update these too. | |
106 | |
107 msdos/is_exec.c, sigaction.c | |
108 - these files are copyright DJ Delorie. Leave the copyrights alone. | |
109 | |
110 src/gmalloc.c | |
111 - contains numerous copyrights from the GNU C library. Leave them alone. | |
112 | |
113 | |
114 *** These are copyright issues still to be addressed: | |
115 | |
116 | |
117 All README (and other such files) that are non-trivial and were added | |
118 by Emacs developers need copyright statements and copying permissions | |
119 to be added. | |
120 | |
121 | |
122 All images files that allow for comments should have copyright and | |
123 license statements added. Whether or not this is possible, the | |
124 information should be recorded in a README file in each directory with | |
125 images. | |
126 | |
127 | |
128 admin/check-doc-strings | |
129 Author is Martin Buchholz, but no assignment from him on file, and | |
130 rms has no way to reach him. | |
131 admin/make-announcement - no copyright | |
132 admin/nt/makedist.bat - no copyright | |
133 etc/ms-kermit - no copyright, but ms-7bkermit has one | |
134 etc/e/eterm-color.ti - no copyright | |
135 rms: "I think that is not copyrightable under the merger doctrine | |
136 because the entries are all forced. At least that is the case in the | |
137 US; I am not sure whether we can rely on that in general." | |
138 | |
139 For the above files, mail sent froam rms to Matthew (Martin?) Norwood | |
140 asking what to do (via Eben Moglen), 2007/1/22 ("Copyright years"). | |
141 | |
142 | |
143 etc/gnus-refcard.tex | |
144 I (rgm) think the "Gnus Bugfixing Girls + Boys" copyright should | |
145 probably be removed, but it may be ok (waiting for rms) | |
146 | |
147 | |
148 etc/orgcard.tex - no Rooke in copyright.list | |
149 rms will talk with Org mode author about this. | |
150 | |
151 | |
152 etc/sk-refcard.ps, pl-refcard.ps, cs-refcard.ps | |
153 These refcards need to be regenerated (by those with suitable TeX | |
154 setups) to get updated copyrights. | |
155 | |
156 | |
157 leim/CXTERM-DIC/CCDOSPY.tit, PY-b5.tit, SW.tit, TONEPY.tit | |
158 leim/MISC-DIC/pinyin.map, ziranma.cin | |
159 The copyright and license is stated in the README file, but we may as | |
160 well copy them into the files themselves (possibly at the expense of | |
161 making them incompatible with their original formats, but they will | |
162 still be usable by Emacs). [Kenichi Handa] | |
163 | |
164 | |
165 lib-src/etags.c - no 'k.* arnold' in copyright.list' | |
166 rms: "That is ok, in principle. I used free code released by Ken | |
167 Arnold as the starting point. However, it may be that we need to get | |
168 and insert whatever his license was for his code." | |
169 | |
170 | |
171 lwlib/lwlib-int.h, lwlib.h - no copyright | |
172 lwlib/Makefile.in, lwlib-utils.c, lwlib.c - copyright Lucid | |
173 lwlib/lwlib-Xaw.c - copyright Chuck Thompson | |
174 lwlib/lwlib.c - copyright Lucid, but FSF copyright was added in 2002 - | |
175 was that correct? | |
176 rms: "I asked Matthew Norwood about these, I believe." | |
177 | |
178 | |
179 msdos/ | |
180 - do we need to add COPYING.LIB (because COPYING.DJ refers to it)? | |
181 | |
182 | |
183 oldXMenu/ | |
184 - should there be any FSF copyrights at all in here? Some were added | |
185 in 2005, without licence notices. Was this right? | |
186 oldXMenu/Makefile.in, Makefile, Imakefile, descrip.mms, insque.c | |
187 - issues described in mail to rms, 2006/12/17. | |
188 rms: "I have asked for lawyer's advice about these." | |
189 | |
190 | |
191 src/acldef.h, chpdef.h, gnu.h, ndir.h | |
192 src/m/mips4.h, news-r6.h, news-risc.h, pmax.h | |
193 src/s/aix3-2.h, bsd386.h, hpux8.h, hpux9.h, irix4-0.h, irix5-0.h, | |
194 isc2-2.h, netbsd.h, osf1.h, sol2-3.h, sunos4-0.h, umips.h, usg5-4-2.h | |
195 - all these (not obviously trivial) files are missing copyrights. | |
196 rms: "I should talk about these with Matthew Norwood." |