Re: [boost] Copyright-less licence references

Subject: Re: [boost] Copyright-less licence references
From: Gennadiy Rozental (rogeeff_at_[hidden])
Date: 2015-09-15 11:56:58

Andrey Semashev <andrey.semashev <at> gmail.com> writes:

> 
> On 15.09.2015 08:45, Gennadiy Rozental wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I suggest we should drop "Copyright Joe Coder 20xx" from all our files. My
> > reasons:
> >
> > * git/svn history provides much better copyright attribution. Each developer
> > has a copyright on lines authored. As it is these copyright disclaimers are
> > very frequently wrong.
> 
> There is no VCS history in the distributed packages. Also, I'm not a 
> lawyer, but I'm not sure VCS history counts as a legal indication of 
> authorship.

And arbitrary number I put in a source file body is?
I'll put 1900 there and will claim that bubble sort implemented in my file 
is authored by me. How about that? 
 
> I'll add that personally I feel that history is something that can be 
> lost relatively painlessly (e.g. due to transition to a different VCS or 
> github being destroyed or whatever other reason). All relevant 
> information should still be available in the source code.

That would require to comment on pretty much each line of code, claiming the 
copyright.

> > * For libraries which are maintained by multiple developers and/or which
> > were moved from one maintainer to another maintainer - these disclaimers
> > either wrong or pain to maintain.
> 
> I see no problem with that. Don't remove anyone from the copyright 
> notice, add yourself only when your contribution is large enout (at your 
> best judgement).

And? What do I get copyright to (Assuming one does not have access to VCS)?