Re: Copyright preambles in the sources

["Marin David Condic" <dont.bother.mcondic.auntie.spam@[acm.org>]

The laws will vary from one country to another, so there's no absolute
answer to the question. I'm sure you've heard that copyright exists even if
you don't have a notice in the code. (Don't know how it would apply in
Russia or any other country outside of the U.S. Check with a lawyer.)

The typical reason for putting the notice into each module/file is that you
don't know if one of those files is going to get separated from the rest of
the work and you want to provide as much protection as you can for your
work. If you don't care that anyone coppies your work, uses it to make
money, claims it as their own, etc., then don't bother with any notices. If
you *do* care, adding the notice to every module is a way of making sure
that people know it is your work and you wish to retain rights to it. The
legal aspects are one thing, but consider the practical aspects as well.
Most people upon seeing the notice will be inclined to be honest and
respectful of your rights & perhaps contact you if they wish to make copies
for some purpose. That's a good thing, so even if it doesn't need to be
there legally, it helps in a practical way. Remember that regardless of what
the law says, street rules always apply. :-)

MDC
--
Marin David Condic
Senior Software Engineer
Pace Micro Technology Americas    www.pacemicro.com
Enabling the digital revolution
e-Mail:    marin.condic@pacemicro.com


"Alexandre E. Kopilovitch" <aek@vib.usr.pu.ru> wrote in message
news:mailman.1021590843.18249.comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org...
> Here was plenty of talk about the copyright issues from the user's
viewpoint,
> but just now I faced a copyright issue as a developer, and need an advice
or
> some explanation.
>   I constantly see in various sources a "copyright preamble". Although I
fully
> respect the author's rights to put any comments into the sources, I deeply
> distaste those "copyright preambles" inside each source file. Therefore I
wish
> to avoid such a practice in my own sources. But being substantially
foreing
> to the whole Copyright/Patent/Intellectual_Property world (because of
Soviet
> background), I don't understand why those preambles are so widespreading.
> why they appear even in the obviously non-commercial packages. And I fear
to
> violate a rule when I don't feel the reason for it -;) .
>   So, why you, independent non-commercial developers, put the "copyright
> preambles" at the beginning of each file of the distributions? Is it a
necessary
> thing? What dangers I invite if I do not include that preambles in each
source
> file, but simply include a separate "copyright notice" file into the
distribution?
>
>
> Alexander Kopilovitch                      aek@vib.usr.pu.ru
> Saint-Petersburg
> Russia
>