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Re: RFC: OpenBSD configurations for gcc 3.3.x
Marc Espie wrote:
On Tue, Jan 13, 2004 at 04:25:10PM -0500, Nathanael Nerode wrote:
Don't write "Copyright (C) 2004..."; the (C) has no legal effect.
Instead, write "Copyright 2004...".
Is there an actual document that says so ?
First, I was always told to write a copyright symbol, and that if
I couldn't (C) had the same legal value.
Second, all the files I see in the actual GCC repository say
Copyright (C) yyyy
Third, the licence templates I use in other projects all have
Copright (c) or Copyright (C) all over the place.
This whole business of legal significance of copyright notices and
discussions about exact formats required is obsolete. The copyright
law was changed some time ago (86 I think) in a radical manner (to
make the US more conformant to e.g. the Berne convention). The current
situation is that copyright notices have no specific legal significance.
A document is copyrighted whether or not it has the notice. The notice
is therefore there only for informational purposes, not for specific
legal reasons.
That being said, it is conventional, based on historical practice from
when it was important, to use (c) or (C) in such informationl messages.
People are used to it, and lots of people think it has important
significance, and get upset if it is not there, so one might as well
put it there :-)