Mercurial > emacs
view admin/notes/copyright @ 75592:fa3660d23cc6
(Attribute Functions): Fix name and description of the UNDERLINE arg
of `set-face-underline-p'.
author | Juanma Barranquero <lekktu@gmail.com> |
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date | Thu, 01 Feb 2007 16:37:35 +0000 |
parents | 68a42f7eeb1f |
children | e91c62156b20 |
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NOTES ON COPYRIGHTS AND LICENSES Some terminology: A "copyright notice" consists of one or a few lines of this format: "Copyright (C) 2006, 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc." A "license notice" is a statement of permissions, and is usually much longer, eg the text "GNU Emacs is free software...". Every non-trivial file distributed through the Emacs CVS should be self-explanatory in terms of copyright and license. This includes files that are not distributed in Emacs releases (for example, the admin/ directory), because the whole Emacs CVS is publicly available. The definition of triviality is a little vague, but a rule of thumb is that any file with less than 15 lines of actual content is trivial. If a file is auto-generated (eg ldefs-boot.el) from another one in the CVS, then it does not really matter about adding a copyright statement to the generated file. The years in the copyright notice should be updated every year (see file "years" in this directory). The PS versions of refcards etc should display copyright notices (an exception to the rule about "generated" files), but these can just display the latest year. The full list of years should be kept in comments in the source file. If these are distributed in CVS, check in a regenerated version when the tex files are updated. Copyright changes should be propagated to any associated repositories (eg Gnus, MH-E), but I think in every case this happens automatically (?). All README (and other such text files) that are non-trivial and were added by Emacs developers need copyright and copying permission statements (see eg INSTALL in the top-level directory). All images files that allow for comments should have copyright and license statements. Whether or not this is possible, the information should be recorded in a README file in each directory with images. When installing a file with an "unusual" license (after checking first it is ok), put a copy of the copyright and license in the file (if possible. It's ok if this makes the file incompatible with its original format, if it can still be used by Emacs), or in a README file in the relevant directory. The vast majority of files are copyright FSF and distributed under the GPL. A few files (mainly related to language and charset support) are copyright AIST alone, or both AIST and FSF. (Contact Kenichi Handa with questions about legal issues in such files.) In all these cases, the copyright years in each file should be updated each year. There are some exceptions to the points in the previous paragraph, and these are listed below for reference, together with any files where the copyright needs to be updated in "unusual" ways. If you find any other such cases, please consult to check they are ok, and note them in this file. This includes missing copyright notices, and "odd" copyright holders. In most cases, individual authors should not appear in copyright statements. Either the copyright has been assigned (check copyright.list) to the FSF (in which case the original author should be removed and the year(s) transferred to the FSF); or else it is possible the file should not be in Emacs at all (please report!). [For reference, most of these points were established via email with rms, 2007/1, "Copyright years".] <top-level>/install-sh lispintro/install-sh - this file is copyright MIT, which is OK. Leave the copyright alone. etc/edt-user.doc - update BOTH notices in this file [etc/orgcard.tex, orgcard.ps - files removed 2007/1/29] - with no assignment from Rooke, these files were removed. We are asking for an assignment, and if one is received the files will be replaced. leim/CXTERM-DIC/4Corner.tit, ARRAY30.tit, CCDOSPY.tit, ECDICT.tit, ETZY.tit, PY-b5.tit, Punct-b5.tit, Punct.tit, QJ-b5.tit, QJ.tit, SW.tit, TONEPY.tit, ZOZY.tit - leave the copyrights alone. leim/MISC-DIC/CTLau-b5.html, CTLau.html, cangjie-table.b5, cangjie-table.cns, pinyin.map, ziranma.cin - leave the copyright alone. leim/SKK-DIC/SKK-JISYO.L ja-dic/ja-dic.el (the latter is auto-generated from the former). Leave the copyright alone. lib-src/etags.c - this has a copyright Ken Arnold. We are still deciding what should be done here (see below). lib-src/getopt1.c, getopt_int.h - these are from the GNU C library. Leave the copyrights alone. lisp/play/tetris.el - no special rules about the copyright. We note here that we believe (2007/1) there is no problem with our use of the name "tetris" or the concept. rms: "My understanding is that game rules as such are not copyrightable." <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2007-01/msg00960.html> lispref/doclicense.texi man/doclicense.texi - leave the copyright alone in this imported file. lisp/net/tramp.el - there are also copyrights in the body of the file. Update these too. msdos/is_exec.c, sigaction.c - these files are copyright DJ Delorie. Leave the copyrights alone. src/gmalloc.c - contains numerous copyrights from the GNU C library. Leave them alone. [src/unexhp9k800.c - removed 2007/1/27] [src/m/sr2k.h - removed 2007/1/27] - First file removed due to legal uncertainties; second file removed due to dependency on first. Note that src/m/hp800.h is still needed on hp800 arch. *** These are copyright issues still to be addressed: Is it OK to just `cvs remove' a file for legal reasons, or is something more drastic needed? A removed file is still available from CVS, if suitable options are applied. rms: will ask lawyer All README (and other such files) that are non-trivial and were added by Emacs developers need copyright statements and copying permissions to be added. lisp/term/README (author)? etc/BABYL? borderline "trivial" cases...? All images files that allow for comments should have copyright and license statements added. Whether or not this is possible, the information should be recorded in a README file in each directory with images. Image files to consider (is there such a thing as a "trivial" image?): src/bitmaps/ etc/*.xpm, *.xbm etc/images/ etc/tree-widget/ etc/*.ps, .eps admin/check-doc-strings Author is Martin Buchholz, but no assignment from him on file, and rms has no way to reach him. admin/make-announcement - no copyright admin/nt/makedist.bat - no copyright (author andrewi@gnu.org? mail sent) etc/ms-kermit - no copyright, but ms-7bkermit has one etc/e/eterm-color.ti - no copyright rms: "I think that is not copyrightable under the merger doctrine because the entries are all forced. At least that is the case in the US; I am not sure whether we can rely on that in general." For the above files, mail sent from rms to Matthew (Martin?) Norwood asking what to do (via Eben Moglen), 2007/1/22 ("Copyright years"). etc/gnus-refcard.tex I (rgm) think the "Gnus Bugfixing Girls + Boys" copyright should probably be removed, but it may be ok (waiting for rms) [etc/orgcard.tex, orgcard.ps] Re-add these files if an assignment is received from Rooke. etc/sk-refcard.ps, pl-refcard.ps, cs-refcard.ps These refcards need to be regenerated (by those with suitable TeX setups) to get updated copyrights. lib-src/etags.c - no 'k.* arnold' in copyright.list' rms: "That is ok, in principle. I used free code released by Ken Arnold as the starting point. However, it may be that we need to get and insert whatever his license was for his code." - 1984 version of ctags, with no copyright, posted to net.sources: http://groups.google.com/group/net.sources/msg/a21b6c21be12a98d lispref/back.texi, elisp-covers.texi, lay-flat.texi, two-volume-cross-refs.txt, two.el - add standard notices to any decided to be non-trivial. lwlib/lwlib-int.h, lwlib.h - no copyright lwlib/Makefile.in, lwlib-utils.c, lwlib.c - copyright Lucid lwlib/lwlib-Xaw.c - copyright Chuck Thompson lwlib/lwlib.c - copyright Lucid, but FSF copyright was added in 2002 - was that correct? rms: "I asked Matthew Norwood about these, I believe." man/back.texi, trampver.texi - add standard notices to any decided to be non-trivial. msdos/ - do we need to add COPYING.LIB (because COPYING.DJ refers to it)? (but see below). msdos/is_exec.c - does copying.dj replace eliz's copyright? msdos/is_exec.c, sigaction.c - relicense under the GPL oldXMenu/ - should there be any FSF copyrights at all in here? Some were added in 2005, without licence notices. Was this right? oldXMenu/Makefile.in, Makefile, Imakefile, descrip.mms, insque.c - issues described in mail to rms, 2006/12/17. rms: "I have asked for lawyer's advice about these." src/acldef.h, chpdef.h, gnu.h, ndir.h src/m/mips4.h, news-r6.h, news-risc.h, pmax.h src/s/aix3-2.h, bsd386.h, hpux8.h, hpux9.h, irix4-0.h, irix5-0.h, isc2-2.h, netbsd.h, osf1.h, sol2-3.h, sunos4-0.h, umips.h, usg5-4-2.h - all these (not obviously trivial) files are missing copyrights. rms: "I should talk about these with Matthew Norwood."