[Python-Dev] Copyright notices in modules (original) (raw)

Terry Reedy tjreedy at udel.edu
Wed Jan 21 08:01:40 CET 2009

Guido van Rossum wrote:

2009/1/20 Raymond Hettinger <python at rcn.com>:

I'm at a loss of why the notice needs to be there at all. There's a difference between contributing a whole file and contributing a patch. Patches do not require copyright notices. Whole files do. This is not affected by later edits to the file.

In my comment, I postulated the situation where the patch consisted of merging in another, independently copyrighted, 'whole file'. Perhaps this has mostly been a non-existent situation and therefor moot.

One real situation I was thinking of, unconnected to Google as far as I am aware, is the case of two third-party IP6 modules and the suggestion that they be merged into one stdlib module. If that were accomplished by committing one and merging the other in a patch, it would be unfair (and untrue) to have just one copyright notice. Of course, in this case, I hope the two authors work everything out between themselves first before any submission.

I completely understand about strongly preferring programming to lawyer consultation ;-).

tjr

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