[RFA/doco] Update copyright year in refcard
Joel Brobecker
brobecker@adacore.com
Fri Jan 1 11:31:00 GMT 2010
> > The header is easy, I just added 2010. The text, however, does not
> > use spaces after the comma when specifying the copyright years.
> > I followed the current usage for now, but I can certainly add spaces.
>
> It's a matter of style. I like the spaces better, so if you have a
> moment to spare, please go ahead.
OK. Since I'm modifying the file, it was no problem adding the spaces.
I also change the '92 into 1992. Attached is what I checked in for now.
> No, that was voted down by FSF lawyers at some point. IANAL, so I
> don't know the details, only that RMS told a few years ago that each
> year needs to be spelled out.
OK. I don't mind that for the copyright headers. That still leaves me
wondering what should be done for the copyright notice in manuals, or
the copyright year printed by GDB, gdbserver, etc. I believe that GDB
does the right thing, and just prints the current year. It is not
so bad if it's a few years, but it looks a bit silly when the list
spans an entirely line or more... I looked at a few manuals,
particularly the ones that got reprinted, and they seem to follow
a convention where the print one line per reprint, something like:
(c) 2004 This Press Ltd
(c) 2006 This Press Ltd
(c) 2008 A Better Press And Sons Ltd
I'm happy to follow whatever the FSF dictates, but it would be nice
if we could simply have just the current year in our manuals.
> I think we should add them now. It is okay fixing a mistake such as
> this one; leaving the mistake alone is not a good idea, because it
> makes the file unprotected for the years when it was actually
> maintained.
According to Robert Dewar, who is not a lawyer, headers such as these
are not legally significant. So I don't think we need to worry about
this too much. But I also think we should fix them whereever we see
an error and we're sure. So I've added 2007/8/9 to the refcard, for
instance. I'm pretty sure for some years before that, but up to when?
I would need to verify in our CVS which, I have to confess, isn't
very appealing at the moment (I've done my share of paperwork for today).
Thanks a lot for the review and the feedback.
--
Joel
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