[Ohrrpgce] SVN: james/12130 Normalize the copyright header on source files
Ralph Versteegen
teeemcee at gmail.com
Thu Dec 2 20:36:56 PST 2021
All code contributors to the OHRRPGCE (with the exception of a couple minor
ones whose code has already been replaced) have agreed to relicense their
code. We will switch to a dual licence under the existing GPLv2+ and under
MIT.
Digging up this old email thread, where we came to a number of conclusions:
-change the copyright header to "Copyright 1997-20XX James Paige, Ralph
Versteegen and the OHRRPGCE Developers"
-have a single LICENSE.txt file, which is renamed to LICENSE-binary.txt
when included with binaries, with suitable wording for both situations
(otherwise, we can automatically add a header to it when renaming)
-in LICENSE.txt list all licences and attributions for included code and
libraries like SDL.dll with a summary at the top.
-add an CREDITS.txt list to the source repo; it doesn't need to be included
with binaries (though I suppose there's no reason not to include it with
Custom). We can also link to the Developers wiki page in LICENSE.txt
I suggest using this header at the top of each covered source file:
'(C) Copyright 1997-20XX James Paige, Ralph Versteegen, and the OHRRPGCE
Developers
'Dual licensed under the GNU GPL v2+ and MIT Licenses. Read LICENSE.txt for
terms and disclaimer of liability.
In cases where a file is written entirely or mostly by someone other than
James or I, I think it's appropriate to use a modified copyright line which
names the person who actually holds copyright (since we don't use copyright
assignment) "and the OHRRPGCE Developers". There are plenty of files with
other licenses anyway, and may already declare a copyright by someone else,
and I don't want to remove the existing credits. For example, "(C)
Copyright 20XX-20XX Jay Tennant and the OHRRPGCE Developers"
Regarding copyright years, my reading of copyright law is that bumping the
date to match the current year is legally meaningless if none of the code
was "first published" in that year. So I wouldn't change all the years. And
the only reason to do so is to delay it falling into the public domain. If
you want to bump the year at the same time as editing a file go ahead.
There are also various files I've marked public domain, I may try to
normalise those headers too. And there are many files lacking a copyright
header.
On Tue, 22 Dec 2020 at 00:44, James Paige <Bob at hamsterrepublic.com> wrote:
> Oh! I understand. Yes, let's have a separate CREDITS.txt file (I like the
> sound of that better than AUTHORS) and not cram anything into LICENSE. And
> yes, the idea of putting all licenses into LICENSE.txt and combining
> LICENCE-binary.txt into a single file are good ideas. Yes, let's do that.
>
> I look forward to reading your relicensing notes :)
>
> ---
> James
>
> On Mon., Dec. 21, 2020, 1:38 a.m. Ralph Versteegen, <teeemcee at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Oh, I didn't actually mean to suggest putting the authors in the LICENSE.
>> I think a separate AUTHORS.txt (or CREDITS.txt) is simple, standard, and a
>> good idea but it's not necessary to include it with binaries; I've haven't
>> seen any other project do that (unless they include all documentation). I'm
>> not against combining the two, it's just unusual. But since we are actually
>> distributing software under multiple licenses I thought it's simplest to
>> have all those licenses listed in one LICENSE file.
>>
>> For that matter, it's not really necessary to have two different LICENSE
>> files (especially if they're going to need updating from time to time). We
>> could just reword it slightly to be suitable for any context. It could
>> still be renamed to LICENSE-binary.txt when distributed with games.
>>
>> Yes, I have a lot of notes for the relicensing. I wrote an enormous draft
>> email which was far too long to send out (it has multiple appendices!), and
>> still unfinished. It's about what license to switch to. I can have another
>> look over it and then send it to you. I realised I should put most of the
>> contents on the wiki instead.
>> I went through everyone's contributions (except help pages?) and found
>> the email address of everyone who needs to be contacted, although I didn't
>> keep notes on what their contribution was. I found there were a few people
>> who contributed code which has since been rewritten/replaced, or is
>> trivial, and luckily everyone whose email I couldn't find is in this
>> category. Some people only contributed to Custom, so we can still relicense
>> Game without them. So only about 6 people (including the two of us) need to
>> agree. I've also been careful to avoid any 3rd party GPL code.
>>
>> On Mon, 21 Dec 2020 at 04:53, James Paige <Bob at hamsterrepublic.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Putting the AUTHORS section in the LICENSE files would be reasonable.
>>>
>>> We could also adjust the builds to include AUTHORS.txt and leave the
>>> LICENSE.txt file simple
>>>
>>> Do you have any written notes for the relicensing plan? Maybe we should
>>> start a wiki page where we can track what needs to be done, who has already
>>> granted permission, who still needs to be contacted, and what might need to
>>> be rewritten
>>>
>>> On Sun., Dec. 20, 2020, 10:05 a.m. Ralph Versteegen, <teeemcee at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> OK. My only reason for arguing against it was that it felt strange
>>>> having my name there and not Mike's, since he wrote a lot of code too. But
>>>> then I looked at gitstats and realised I have over 10x as many svn commits
>>>> as Mike and almost 10x more lines added. It turns out Jay contributed
>>>> almost as much code as Mike! I'm still impressed by how many headline
>>>> features Mike implemented; he didn't waste time on cleanup for the sake of
>>>> it, something I still need to learn :)
>>>>
>>>> Isn't author information normally in AUTHORS.txt?
>>>>
>>>> Since LICENSE.txt / LICENSE-binary.txt are what are actually
>>>> distributed with binaries we really ought to have the copyright info in
>>>> there!
>>>> On that note, I wanted to expand those files to list the copyright info
>>>> of all the source code we incorporate (whether credit in documentation is
>>>> technically required or not) as distributing that code under the GPL does
>>>> not avoid attribution requirements. I'm imagining that the top of the file
>>>> would state that the whole program is GPL'd, summarise copyrights and
>>>> licenses of all components, and the rest of the file would be a
>>>> concatenation of the full GPL, LGPL, Apache, etc licenses and attributions.
>>>> This is a bit unconventional, admittedly.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Sun, 20 Dec 2020 at 14:52, James Paige <Bob at hamsterrepublic.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> How about:
>>>>>
>>>>> Copyright 1997-2020 James Paige, Ralph Versteegen and the OHRRPGCE
>>>>> Developers
>>>>>
>>>>> Having "Hamster Republic Productions" in there is was just meaningless
>>>>> fluff, because I haven't kept the fictitious business name registration for
>>>>> it current. I let it expire somewhere around 2007 or so (I don't remember
>>>>> exactly)
>>>>>
>>>>> Having our real names there is good, because without a proper legal
>>>>> umbrella organization, our names are where the copyright should actually
>>>>> be. Saying "the OHRRPGCE Developers" is a decent shorthand to acknowledge
>>>>> that there are others too. We could add a COPYRIGHT.txt file that describes
>>>>> contributions in more detail, which I think is a good idea for our
>>>>> relicensing plans anyway.
>>>>>
>>>>> If you would rather not have your name in there in the header, it is
>>>>> up to you, but you've written so much code you definitely deserve it if you
>>>>> want it :D
>>>>>
>>>>> On Sat., Dec. 19, 2020, 6:11 p.m. Ralph Versteegen, <
>>>>> teeemcee at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> I'm pleased to see the old file headers replaced.
>>>>>> But I wanted to discuss what the copyright line should be. I've never
>>>>>> been inducted into the Hamster Republic and don't think it describes the
>>>>>> set of contributors to the project. And nobody has ever been asked to
>>>>>> assign/transfer their copyrights in their contributions to you or HR, so
>>>>>> they still possess them (and their permission is needed to relicense). I
>>>>>> also don't think I need to be credited as co-maintainer.
>>>>>> I suggest something like:
>>>>>> Copyright 1997-2020 James Paige and the OHRRPGCE Developers
>>>>>> Copyright 1997-2020 the OHRRPGCE Developers and Hamster Republic
>>>>>> Productions
>>>>>> Copyright 1997-2020 James Paige, Hamster Republic Productions and
>>>>>> the OHRRPGCE Developers
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I also see some inconsistencies still exist, so I'm going to fix
>>>>>> those now without changing the copyright. (gitk makes it very easy to
>>>>>> compare each file, I just hold down left mouse button and drag over each
>>>>>> file in the changeset).
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Sun, 20 Dec 2020 at 09:49, <subversion at hamsterrepublic.com> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> james
>>>>>>> 2020-12-19 12:49:12 -0800 (Sat, 19 Dec 2020)
>>>>>>> 77
>>>>>>> Normalize the copyright header on source files
>>>>>>> Deprecate the self-deprecation
>>>>>>> ---
>>>>>>> U wip/attackedit.bas
>>>>>>> U wip/backends.bas
>>>>>>> U wip/bcommon.bas
>>>>>>> U wip/bcommon.bi
>>>>>>> U wip/bihead.txt
>>>>>>> U wip/bmod.bi
>>>>>>> U wip/bmod.rbas
>>>>>>> U wip/bmodsubs.bas
>>>>>>> U wip/bmodsubs.bi
>>>>>>> U wip/browse.bas
>>>>>>> U wip/cglobals.bi
>>>>>>> U wip/common.bi
>>>>>>> U wip/common.rbas
>>>>>>> U wip/common_menus.bas
>>>>>>> U wip/const.bi
>>>>>>> U wip/custom.bas
>>>>>>> U wip/custom.bi
>>>>>>> U wip/customsubs.bi
>>>>>>> U wip/customsubs.rbas
>>>>>>> U wip/distribmenu.bas
>>>>>>> U wip/distribmenu.bi
>>>>>>> U wip/drawing.bas
>>>>>>> U wip/editedit.bas
>>>>>>> U wip/editedit.bi
>>>>>>> U wip/editrunner.bas
>>>>>>> U wip/editrunner.bi
>>>>>>> U wip/enemyedit.bas
>>>>>>> U wip/flexmenu.bi
>>>>>>> U wip/formationedit.bas
>>>>>>> U wip/game.bas
>>>>>>> U wip/game.bi
>>>>>>> U wip/gglobals.bi
>>>>>>> U wip/globalstredit.bas
>>>>>>> U wip/heroedit.rbas
>>>>>>> U wip/itemedit.bas
>>>>>>> U wip/loading.bi
>>>>>>> U wip/loading.rbas
>>>>>>> U wip/lumpfile.bas
>>>>>>> U wip/lumpfile.bi
>>>>>>> U wip/mapsubs.bas
>>>>>>> U wip/menuedit.bas
>>>>>>> U wip/menus.bas
>>>>>>> U wip/menus.bi
>>>>>>> U wip/menustuf.rbas
>>>>>>> U wip/miditest.bi
>>>>>>> U wip/misc.bas
>>>>>>> U wip/moresubs.rbas
>>>>>>> U wip/music_native_subs.bi
>>>>>>> U wip/oldhsinterpreter.bas
>>>>>>> U wip/pathfinding.bas
>>>>>>> U wip/plankmenu.bas
>>>>>>> U wip/purchase.rbas
>>>>>>> U wip/reload.bas
>>>>>>> U wip/reload.bi
>>>>>>> U wip/reloadedit.bas
>>>>>>> U wip/reloadedit.bi
>>>>>>> U wip/reloadext.bas
>>>>>>> U wip/reloadext.bi
>>>>>>> U wip/relump.bas
>>>>>>> U wip/savegame.rbas
>>>>>>> U wip/scrconst.bi
>>>>>>> U wip/scriptcommands.bas
>>>>>>> U wip/scriptedit.bas
>>>>>>> U wip/scripting.bas
>>>>>>> U wip/sdl_lumprwops.bas
>>>>>>> U wip/shopedit.bas
>>>>>>> U wip/sliceedit.bas
>>>>>>> U wip/sliceedit.bi
>>>>>>> U wip/slices.bas
>>>>>>> U wip/slices.bi
>>>>>>> U wip/specialslices.bas
>>>>>>> U wip/subs4.bas
>>>>>>> U wip/testgame/autotest.rpg
>>>>>>> U wip/textboxedit.bas
>>>>>>> U wip/thingbrowser.bas
>>>>>>> U wip/unlump.bas
>>>>>>> U wip/util.bas
>>>>>>> U wip/util.bi
>>>>>>> U wip/walkabouts.bas
>>>>>>> U wip/yetmore2.bas
>>>>>>>
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>>>>>>>
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