Re: copyright holders

Willi Mann wrote:
> Hi!
> 
> There are two things that are in a very bad state in logwatch: The
> listed copyright holders in the scripts and the file License in the
> source tarball.
> 
> Problem 1 is that some scripts have no copyright notice at all, some
> state "were written by ..." (this is not a proper copyright notice), and
> only a few have proper copyright notices.
> 
> Problem 2 is that the file License only lists the X11 license, despite
> the fact that at least three files are distributed under the BSD
> License. The list of copyright holders is also incomplete, but that's
> more part of Problem 1,
> 
> ##
> - How does a proper copyright notice look like?
> 
> Copyright (c) <year1>{,<yearn>} <person>
> 
> (The unicode character for a "c" in in a circle would be better, but I'm
> not sure if all people can read it)
> 
> A hint about the applicable license should also be added, particularly
> as there are scripts not licensed under the X11 license.
> 
> - When should a copyright notice be added to a script?
> 
> Whenever someone contributes non-trivial (copyrightable to be exact)
> changes.
> 
> - Are proper copyright notices really necessary?
> 
> Yes, because a license can only be granted by declared copyright
> holders. Contributions of undeclared copyright holders are thus not
> distributable. See also [1]
> ##
> 
> I have started to look at the various files and marked those that are
> properly copyrighted by renaming them to file.fixed. [2] (Please apply
> attached patches to my scripts)
> 
> What needs to be done is to ask every author and contributor [3] of each
> script when he created the contribution and if he is also the copyright
> holder [4], and also if the copyright holder agrees to distribute his
> work under Logwatch's license.
> 
> Who of you is willing to help? I can't do this on my own as I have to
> meet some deadlines in the next few weeks, and I have some examinations.
> 
> Willi
> 
> [1] http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-archive.html#s-pkgcopyright
> [2] http://svn.debian.org/viewsvn/pkg-logwatch/trunk/copyright-status/
> [3] Of course only when the patch is copyrightable.
> [4] author and copyright holder may differ, especially if the work was
> written as part of an employment
> 


I know this came up before and Bjorn had done a run through of the files 
and sent out some emails for a few of the problem scripts. Make sure you 
check the CVS versions to see if anything has changed vs the Debian 
release version. But you are right and we do need to get this all in order.

-Mike