Re: Copyright assignement for Debian tools?
Thomas Koch writes ("Copyright assignement for Debian tools?"):
> I'm currently hacking on the maven-repo-helper package. The source
> code contains copyright statements from the original author. Now
> when I add classes it would be logical to add "Copyright 2013 Thomas
> Koch".
Right.
> But I don't see any sense in this. I've no interest to be the copyright
> holder. I'd much rather like to write "Copyright 2013 The Debian Project".
> (Actually I'm totally annoyed by anything related to copyright...)
I see.
> Do you have any advise for code that originates in the Debian project?
Well, I would advise you to retain your copyright and publish your
code under a suitable licence. Ie write
Copyright (C)2013 Thomas Koch
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
But if you don't want to do that, you do have the possibility to
assign it to Software in the Public Interest. I'm not sure how the
law works exactly in your jurisdiction but in the UK and the US to do
that you need state it in writing. Something like:
Written/modified by Thomas Koch, 2013.
I hereby assign my copyright in Gnomovision (all past and future
versions) to Software in the Public Interest, Inc.
- Thomas Koch 21 Feb 2013
Copyright (C)2013 Software in the Public Interest, Inc
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
NB that in your jurisdiction it might be necessary to write something
on paper or something, but in the UK and the US AFAICT writing it in a
computer file is sufficient.
SPI doesn't encourage you to do this. But they do promise what they
will do with the copyright if you choose to disregard that advice:
http://www.spi-inc.org/corporate/resolutions/1998/1998-11-16.iwj.2/
See s3 of that resolution in particular.
Ian.
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