Re: FreeBSD port (52): platform dependent utmp comparison

[Paul Eggert <eggert at twinsun dot com>]

> Date: Sat, 21 Sep 2002 00:36:53 +0200 (CEST)
> From: Bruno Haible <bruno@clisp.org>
> 
> Roland McGrath writes:
> > Only the opinions of lawyers matter. Many years ago the FSF laywer
> > at the time said to follow the conventions I've said.
> 
> The legal departments of some companies are satisfied with the range
> notation.

The US copyright legislation does not explicitly reject year ranges.
However, law is not that simple: you need to know the past cases on
the subject and have a good legal intution in order to predict whether
this might be a problem in the future.  In the past, defective
copyright notices have caused real legal programs, so it is wise to be
conservative here.

I also strongly dislike 2-digit years, so I use a form like this:

   Copyright (C) 1988, 1989, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2001,
   2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

This satisfies the FSF legal counsel and the GNU coding standards.


> Date: Fri, 20 Sep 2002 15:35:00 -0700
> From: Ulrich Drepper <drepper@redhat.com>
> 
> Thomas Bushnell, BSG wrote:
>> it is a legal requirement not to use ranges.
>
> Show me where.

If you're curious about the matter, I suggest you contact Eben Moglen
and ask him.  He's the FSF legal counsel, and most likely is the
source of this particular bit of legal advice.  I'm a bit curious
about this legal requirement myself, but have never had the time to
ask him.

Here are his coordinates:

Eben Moglen                       voice: 212-854-8382
Professor of Law & Legal History    fax: 212-854-7946    moglen@
Columbia Law School, 435 West 116th Street, NYC 10027  columbia.edu
General Counsel,  Free Software Foundation