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

* Marvin Renich <[email protected]> [260828 14:39]:
> If upstream is _known_ to be averse to putting years on their copyright
> notices (which is the subject of this sub-thread), adding the year to
> _their_ copyright notice in the Debian package is not "being a good free
> software citizen", it is simply a waste of time and resources, and is
> counterproductive.

On the other hand, if you want to add a date to the line "The following
license applies to...:" in the d/copyright file, instead of changing the
text of the license/copyright below it and/or changing the source code
itself, that's different.

My point is that the copyrights and licenses in upstream's source
package are explicitly non-mutable.  If you change them, you are
speaking on their behalf, not for yourselves.

E.g. GPLv2 includes:

    Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
    of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.

And the MIT-style license includes:

    The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
    included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

And the BSD license:

    Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

Debian is not permitted to change or add a date to upstream's copyright
notice.  Doing so violates the license.

...Marvin