[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: Removal of copyright years



On Thursday, February 6, 2025 5:08:06 PM MST Ben Ramsey wrote:

> > On Feb 6, 2025, at 13:25, Soren Stoutner <soren@debian.org> wrote:

> >

> > In my opinion, no copyright statement is complete without a year range,

> > because this tells you when the copyright would be expected to expire.

> > Number 2 tells you when the copyright on the totality of the files expires.

> >  Number 3 tells you the range of years when the copyright expires on parts

> > of the contained work.  It is left to the user to determine when copyright

> > expires for a particular file if they need to know that information.

> The minimum standard for copyright term in the Berne Convention is life of the

> author plus 50 years. Of the 195 countries in the world, 181 are parties to

> the Berne Convention. Some countries go well beyond the minimum; in the US,

> it’s 70 years after the author’s death.

>

> Berne also introduced the concept that authors receive copyright protection

> the moment the work is “fixed,” and there’s no need to register for copyright

> or even put a copyright notice on the work.

>

> I don’t think having the year(s) listed matters anymore. What matters is the

> year of death of the author. (A morbid thought, I know.)


You make a good point.  Although I will probably still prefer to include copyright years on projects where I am upstream, I won’t feel so strongly against those who do otherwise.


--

Soren Stoutner

soren@debian.org

Attachment: signature.asc
Description: This is a digitally signed message part.


Reply to: