Hello Branden, i regard the following as a bad idea - not as a major problem, though.
Looking at this particular file, my assessment is: Writing this file created Copyright, because the content is clearly non-trivial and amounts to a creative work. I does not matter whether the creative work is particularly difficult, there only needs to be a creative work at all. I would even argue that the text of the file is quite complicated, so much so that staring at it for some time, i did not immediately understand what exactly it is even testing. So i have no doubt you own Copyright on this file. In that case, what does removing the Copyright line accomplish? It does not change the legal situation. Whether Copyright exists does not depend on the Copyright notice but on the properties of the Works and on who created it. So even after deleting the notice, you still own the Copyright. Consequently, all the removal accomplishes is making it harder for people to figure out who owns the (obviously existing) Copyright. If it ever goes to court, it might even cause legal confusion, as in what did the Copyright holder mean by deleting the notice? If you own some right, saying "I do not own that right" (as you do in the commit message) does not make that right go away, so you still own that right. Does deleting the notice mean that you still want to grant the same rights as before under the GPL, or does it mean that you wanted to change something, and if so, what? I certainly would be annoyed having to argue such questions in court, or having my lawyer waste time on that. One thing that seems very unlikely to matter in court is the FSF "15 lines changed" rule. I have a hard time imagining any court ruling "the FSF says less than 15 lines, this is 12 lines, so there is no Copyright" - neither under _Feist_ nor in some other jurisdiction outside the U.S.. On top of that, _Feist_ says: The constitutional requirement necessitates independent creation plus a modicum of creativity. It seems very obvious to me that creating this file involved both "independent creation" and a "modicum of creativity". So even under the (non-international) authority you yourself cite, saying that there is no Copyright is quite obviously wrong. Now, even if somebody were in doubt whether a particular file establishes Copyright, keeping the notice costs nothing, guards against the risk that a court might come to a different conclusion, and removes any potential doubt whether a license was granted. Even if you are quite sure there is no Copyright in a particular file because it did not even require a "modicum of creativity" even though it was an "independent creation", putting in a line like # This file was written in 2026 by G. Branden Robinson # and put into the public domain. is better than putting in nothing because it makes the intent clear in case someone ever has doubts - even in jurisdictions where putting something into the public domain is not possible, the clarification of intent may still help. This is certainly not a big deal, since nobody is likely to sue over such things (except maybe crooks looking for creative ways to make money from phoney litigation). Then again, i see clear benefit in keeping Copyright notices in cases of doubt (more legal clarity and less risk of legal confusion) and no benefit whatsoever in trying to follow the "simplified" FSF rule to the letter. A Copyright line eats no bread. Yours, Ingo G. Branden Robinson wrote on Tue, Oct 20, 2026 at 09:34:20PM -0400: > gbranden pushed a commit to branch master > in repository groff. > > commit 35d9f39e0bc686118e52ed5cf1a75ee588cddceb > Author: G. Branden Robinson <[email protected]> > AuthorDate: Sat Oct 17 15:33:45 2026 -0500 > > [groff]: Drop copyright notices from small tests. > > * src/roff/groff/tests/hpf-request-works.sh: > * src/roff/groff/tests/hpfa-request-works.sh: Do it. > > The "meat" of these tests is fewer than 15 lines, so it's not "legally > significant".[1] > > [1] See groff's "HACKING" file, section "Updating Copyright Notices". > --- > src/roff/groff/tests/hpf-request-works.sh | 2 -- > src/roff/groff/tests/hpfa-request-works.sh | 2 -- > 2 files changed, 4 deletions(-) > > diff --git a/src/roff/groff/tests/hpf-request-works.sh > b/src/roff/groff/tests/hpf-request-works.sh > index fc5cede2c..7919441cf 100755 > --- a/src/roff/groff/tests/hpf-request-works.sh > +++ b/src/roff/groff/tests/hpf-request-works.sh > @@ -1,7 +1,5 @@ > #!/bin/sh > # > -# Copyright 2026 G. Branden Robinson > -# > # This file is part of groff, the GNU roff typesetting system. > # > # groff is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it over > diff --git a/src/roff/groff/tests/hpfa-request-works.sh > b/src/roff/groff/tests/hpfa-request-works.sh > index 83d109f39..41852ec5f 100755 > --- a/src/roff/groff/tests/hpfa-request-works.sh > +++ b/src/roff/groff/tests/hpfa-request-works.sh > @@ -1,7 +1,5 @@ > #!/bin/sh > # > -# Copyright 2026 G. Branden Robinson > -# > # This file is part of groff, the GNU roff typesetting system. > # > # groff is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it over
