[cairo] COPYING files....

[Sean Middleditch]

On Tue, 2004-02-10 at 11:00, Egbert Eich wrote:
> Sean Middleditch writes:

>  > easy embedding of COPYING notices can still have a license file (i.e.,
>  > if you have a lot of PNGs or something else, where you'd prefer not to
>  > embed huge text chunks), and for larger licenses (GPL) you only need to
>  > refer the user to the COPYING file in the copyright headers of files,
>  > versus copy the whole thing into the sources.
> 
> What if somebody goes ahead and changes the COPYING file behind your back?

If we're talking about a single piece of software, and not a huge
monolithic collection of disparate components, this shouldn't be an
issue.  If it is, you had better re-evaluate who you're letting have
access to your source control system.  ;-)


>  > You don't need the copyright notice in the copying file; just the
>  > license.  Put the individual copyrights in the files themselves.  That
>  > way you don't need 100 contributors listed in your COPYING file.
>  > 
> 
> Yes, but I mentioned that in the MIT-style license the license text
> is often modified to hold the copyright holder's name. Please note
> that I wasn't talking about the GPL.

One can just put "Copyright holders and contributors" in the license and
not worry about.  Granted, I'm more used to the (new) BSD style license
than the wording of the MIT/X license.

And really, so far as autotools is concerned, you don't *need* to put
the license or copyright attributions in the COPYING file at all.  The
file isn't named COPYRIGHTS or LICENSE.  ;-)  Just stick a note in there
that the software is protected under copyright law, a note about which
licenses are in use in the project, and to read the individual files for
specific copyright and licensing terms, and get on with it.  The COPYING
file really isn't that big of a deal.  ~,^

> 
> Egbert.
> 
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-- 
Sean Middleditch <elanthis@awesomeplay.com>
AwesomePlay Productions, Inc.