[Sugar-devel] Copyright notices

[James Cameron]

On Fri, Dec 31, 2010 at 12:13:36PM -0500, Bernie Innocenti wrote:
> On 12/30/10 19:30, James Cameron wrote:
> > (By the way, I couldn't find a copyright or license in the code.
> > That makes any contribution ambiguous.  Please add a copyright and
> > license so that contributions are welcomed.)
> 
> While it's still common practice, there's no legal requirement for an
> explicit copyright notice:

Heh.  Common practice wins over requirements, since it makes the intent
as clear as possible.

> Also, there's no legal need to repeat the license in each source file.
> Dropping a LICENSE file in the top-level directory is sufficient.

The GPL has a section on how to apply the license to a program, and it
describes placing a summary of the license in the source.

It also suggests making the license visible to the user when the program
starts, which I've seen done as stderr, stdout, a GUI splash, or Help -
About menu item.  I've not seen Sugar activities do this.

-- 
James Cameron
http://quozl.linux.org.au/