On 13/02/2023 22:50, Han-Wen Nienhuys wrote:
which sounds like exactly the opposite.
I read it again, and you are right. The instructions say to update
each file even if the file itself wasn't changed in that year. I guess
the instructions codify what I find annoying in this practice: to
touch files even if they weren't changed in any way.
My gut feeling is that this is actually fraud.
Strong words, I know, but if nothing creative has happened that is
worthy of copyright, then to claim that the copyright has changed is
just plain wrong.
I don't know the laws exactly with corporate copyrights, but seeing as
the copyright clock only starts ticking for "real person" authors when
they die, the reality is each person on project where copyright is NOT
assigned should probably update their own personal copyright statement
every time they make a change. But then that's horrendous header clutter...
Personally, I'd be happiest if everybody who updated a file was
responsible for making sure the copyright date was updated
appropriately, and we didn't make global changes as and when nothing has
actually changed in the file.
Cheers,
Wol
