Hi,

I noticed (due to massive file churn in our VCS after importing the
latest ZF release) that many files have had their copyright date changed
to 2011.

While this is all well and good, is it actually valid to do so without
actually making any other change to the file?

I mean, if copyright can be extended simply by changing the copyright
date in it's header does that not mean that e.g. copyright on an
artistic work could last forever if the owners just change the date
every year? (this may not apply to code per se - more a general question)

I have a script that I run at year end on our code that diligently
checks to see if a file has been edited in the last year and only amends
the copyright date in the header based on this check (which uses our VCS
history). This seems to me to be "correct" in the sense that the year in
the preamble will only be modified to reflect when the file was last
changed, but obviously it's more complex than a blanket change.

This is really an open question about how to deal with copyright
headers. Opinions welcome :)

Cheers

Col

-- 

Colin Guthrie
gmane(at)colin.guthr.ie
http://colin.guthr.ie/

Day Job:
  Tribalogic Limited [http://www.tribalogic.net/]
Open Source:
  Mageia Contributor [http://www.mageia.org/]
  PulseAudio Hacker [http://www.pulseaudio.org/]
  Trac Hacker [http://trac.edgewall.org/]


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