Andrew Chernow wrote:
Bruce Momjian wrote:
Greg Stark wrote:
Is that actually legal if we haven't modified the files? Or is the whole source tree considiered one work?
One work, I assume.
I am not a lawyer, but if its one work, why is there a notice in every source file? ISTM that if it were one work there would only have to be one notice.

"Would only have to be one notice" is correct. You do not need a notice in every file. You put a notice in every file as extra unnecessary effort to make sure that people cannot possibly miss it. It is not a requirement for copyright that every file have a copyright comment on top. That it is in every source file is similar to putting extra parens around expressions or embedding documentation in an API. It does not indicate that the work is not a single work. It is simply making the terms more explicit and easily accessible.

Most importantly, the *lack* of a copyright notice, does not indicate that there is no copyright rights defined. If 10 files have a copyright notice, and the 11th file does not, this does not indicate that the 11th file has more or less copyright restrictions than the other 10 that are explicit. The implicit copyright may be "All rights reserved" whereas the explicit copyright may say "You may use this software for free provided that you do not hold the authors responsible for any damages caused by use of the software". Which is more restrictive?

Cheers,
mark

--
Mark Mielke <m...@mielke.cc>


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