Re: d/copyright years when upstream does not use years?

Jonas Smedegaard <[email protected]> Fri, 28 Aug 2026 17:03:50 +0200
Newsgroups	gmane.linux.debian.devel.general
Message-ID	<[email protected]>
Quoting Marvin Renich (2026-08-28 16:23:15)
> * Sean Whitton <[email protected]> [260828 08:56]:
> > The Wanderer [21/Aug  2:47pm -04] wrote:
> > > Unless I'm very much mistaken (which is always possible), the date of a
> > > copyright determines when that copyright will expire, and the
> > > copyrighted material will enter the public domain.
> > >
> > > AFAIK, we're well short of the first code that could still run on modern
> > > hardware entering the public domain - but it will presumably happen
> > > eventually, and having the copyright dates for the material in question
> > > could be valuable when that "eventually" becomes "currently". It's
> > > potentially even more relevant for non-code data, because that may be
> > > much more likely to still be usable (even if by newer code) on future
> > > hardware.
> > 
> > Right.  So good free software citizenship requires, I think, supplying
> > the years, with our future descendents in mind.
> 
> To be clear, supplying an _appropriate_ year, not just updating the year
> in every file for every upload to the archive.  That would just make a
> lot more work for someone later on trying to enforce a copyright or
> trying to show a copyright had expired, in addition to just being busy
> work for the Debian maintainer.
> 
> TBH, (I am not a lawyer) if Debian as a redistributor of someone else's
> software adds dates to copyright notices, but either does not send them
> back upstream or upstream refuses to accept them, I am dubious that the
> dates would have _any bearing at all_ in a legal battle.  The only thing
> adding a date would protect would be changes made by Debian, not the
> original upstream code (and only if the dates were added in a separate
> copyright notice for and by the persons making the changes).
> 
> To put it another way, I do not believe that Debian, as a redistributor,
> can in any way make changes to upstream's copyright or license.  Adding
> a date to upstream's copyright notice is one such change that would (in
> my layman's opinion) be ineffectual in a legal battle.

Yes, good free software citizenship requires supplying the years that
are known to us, but not invent years. Same was as we should supply the
copyright holders and licensing requirements.

 - Jonas

-- 
 * Jonas Smedegaard - idealist & Internet-arkitekt
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