Re: Standardized file headers?

Under current copyright law, a copyright statement is not required: works
are "born copyrighted" and no copyright notice is required.
And, by the way, in the old "notice" regime, the "(c)" was neither required
nor meaningful. It was only necessary if there wasn't room for the full
word "copyright", but the only legally accepted version was the exact
symbol ©.

The copyright notice serves to warn people that the work is copyrighted.
But just as importantly, we should notify people that it is licensed under
the GPL. Every file should include a reference to the license, something
like this:

;;; -*-  Mode: Lisp; Package: Maxima; Syntax: Common-Lisp; Base: 10 -*- ;;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;                                                                    ;;;;;
;;;  Copyright 1984,1987 by William Schelter, University of Texas
 ;;;;;
;;;  Copyright 1982 Massachusetts Institute of Technology              ;;;;;
;;;  Copyright 2000-2026 The Maxima Project                            ;;;;;
;;;  The Maxima Project includes those listed in AUTHORS               ;;;;;
;;;                                                                    ;;;;;
;;;  Licensed under the Gnu General Public License (GPL), version 2    ;;;;;
;;;  The full text of the GPL is in the file COPYING
 ;;;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

And we should include the line about 2000-2026, because otherwise someone
might think (incorrectly) that the copyright lapsed N years after 1987.

We should include the updated text in all our files.

Adding the line about Copyright 2000-2026 The Maxima Project clarifies who
the legal owners are, which is necessary if we ever have to sue anyone.
IANAL and I'm sure this isn't perfect, but I think it's better than what we
have.

On Wed, Apr 22, 2026 at 3:58 PM Raymond Toy <[email protected]> wrote:

> While working on breaking some circular dependencies, I need to create
> some new files. What is the appropriate header for these files. We seem to
> have a lot of styles, and of course, we have the old original version:
>
>
> ;;; -*-  Mode: Lisp; Package: Maxima; Syntax: Common-Lisp; Base: 10 -*- ;;;;
> ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
> ;;;     The data in this file contains enhancements.                   ;;;;;
> ;;;                                                                    ;;;;;
> ;;;  Copyright (c) 1984,1987 by William Schelter,University of Texas   ;;;;;
> ;;;     All rights reserved                                            ;;;;;
> ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
> ;;;     (c) Copyright 1982 Massachusetts Institute of Technology         ;;;
> ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
>
> The mode line is fine. But the rest is really rather outdated. I’m not
> proposing we change these in existing files, but we should have a
> standardized one for new files. There should probably be a copyright
> statement. I guess a mention of the copyright in COPYING would work?
> &#8203;
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>

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