On some other GNU mailing list (I can't remember which), I recently noticed a discussion about a change in GNU's recommendation for copyright year updates. Here's the new recommendation:
To update the list of year numbers, add each year in which you have made nontrivial changes to the package. (Here we assume you're using a publicly accessible revision control server, so that every revision installed is also immediately and automatically published.) When you add the new year, it is not required to keep track of which files have seen significant changes in the new year and which have not. It is recommended and simpler to add the new year to all files in the package, and be done with it for the rest of the year. I think this is a nice change. I frequently forget to update copyright years when I write patches. I don't like wasting time checking whether I need to update the year every time I write a patch. I don't like the distraction when reading diffs. Occasionally, I've noticed a cherry-pick that fails to update the year in the target branch because it was previously updated only in the source branch. I'd be happy to be rid of all this hassle. Does anyone object to adopting this policy for Bison? If not, I'll follow with a patch to update the copyright year in every file in master, branch-2.5, and branch-2.4.2. Akim, I'll be sure to wait for your opinion before proceeding. If you want some time to consider this proposal, I'll be happy to wait a couple of weeks for your return.
