Re: Standardized file headers?

The existing copyright notices as well as the proposed one are kind of
bulky. Can they all be
"by reference" making them each a really really short statement? They
already refer to COPYING,
and to AUTHORS so they are not self-contained.


I find the copyright notices with Bill Schelter's name and U. Texas so
prominent on each file
possibly misleading to those who might assume that Bill wrote the contents
of the
file, as opposed to what he did do:  extract the code from the Dept of
Energy
used his name and UT as place-holder and put it into GPL (with DOE
permission, of course).

  There presumably IS code that Bill authored, but probably not marked as
such.


(Some group theory? some maclisp-to-common-lisp macros? a bunch of code we
do not use -- having to
do with Texas Instruments' Lisp Machine.)

How about
;;; -*-  Mode: Lisp; Package: Maxima; Syntax: Common-Lisp; Base: 10 -*- ;;;;
;;; For copyright information see COPYRIGHT. Licensed under GPL version 2 ;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

I too am not a lawyer.  I wonder if there is there a need for a legal
entity "the Maxima Project"?

RJF





On Wed, Apr 22, 2026 at 5:14 PM Stavros Macrakis <[email protected]> wrote:

> 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;
>> _______________________________________________
>> Maxima-discuss mailing list
>> [email protected]
>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/maxima-discuss
>>
> _______________________________________________
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> [email protected]
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>

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