Re: Proper Copyright Year in PHP files now an automated QA tasks

jojodee wrote:
> Marcel van der Boom wrote:
> 
>> 3. The copyright notice should be:
>>  a.) Copyright (C) 1993, 2005, 2009 The Digital Development Foundation
>>  b.) Copyright (C) 1993, 2005, 2009 A.U. Thor
>>  c.) a combination of the above
>>
>> If the file had significant, non trivial contributions in 1993, 2005 and
>> 2009.
>>
> 
> According to copyright law and the notice we decided on when we redid
> the whole repository on changing to DDF as copyright holder, we chose
> the range of dates if you recall as this was the normal method for
> websites, or software where there were ongoing or continuing  changes.
> Thus we have ranges in all our files.

Unfortunately that does not make it right. It may be a claim to copyright for
every year in the range, but it just complicates things if you are ever put in a
position to have to prove that copyright (the notice itself only lays out your
claim - it does not itself *create* any copyright).

If we never changed the year from 2004, we would still have ~75 years of
protection anyway on that year alone, at least until the file is changed beyond
any recognition.

I would go for the list, and have some very clear guidance available to
developers on what a "significant change" is.

-- Jason