Subject: [bug#76963] Copyright ranges and Copyright holders in README [WAS Re: [bug#76963] [PATCH] home: Add home-snuik-service.], [PATCH] doc: Add note on copyright ranges to README., [PATCH] doc: Add note on copyright ranges to README.

From: Maxim Cournoyer <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2025 21:52:44 +0900

Hi,

Janneke Nieuwenhuizen <[email-masked]> writes:

[...]

> It seems the gnu-prog-discuss has reached consensus in advising to add
> this bit
>
> +For any copyright year range specified as YYYY-ZZZZ in this package
> +note that the range specifies every single year in that closed
> +interval.
>
> to the manual, so my proposal would be to add the attached patch.

I had come up with this variant, and thought I had already shared it,
but it seems not.  Anyway, I think this variant should be useful for
newcomers as it provides an actual template and documents that
contributors copyrights are retained, and cross-references the GNU
Standards manual for more reading:

>From b9156eb3ea44c64fb82b9e983593e477e0e3100f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
Message-ID: <b9156eb[email-masked]>
From: Maxim Cournoyer <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2025 21:42:34 +0900
Subject: [PATCH] README: Mention ranges are OK in copyright notices.

Change-Id: I8495c84f9ab462bcc64dae39acca5a8460c4b200
---
 README | 15 +++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 15 insertions(+)

diff --git a/README b/README
index b9f36f8344..5c0e0e20f5 100644
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -108,3 +108,18 @@ but exposes all the API as Scheme.
   - The [[https://www.gnu.org/s/gsrc/][GNU Source Release Collection]] (GSRC) is a user-land software
     distribution; unlike Guix, it relies on core tools available on the
     host system
+
+* Copyright Notices
+
+GNU Guix is made available under the GNU GPL version 3 or later license, and
+authors retain their copyright.  For copyright notices, we adhere to the
+guidance documented in (info "(maintain) Copyright Notices"), and explicitly
+allow ranges instead of individual years.  Here's an example of the preferred
+style used for copyright notices in source file headers:
+
+#+begin_comment
+Copyright © 2019-2023, 2025 Your Name <[email-masked]>
+#+end_comment
+
+Meaning there were copyright-able changes made for the years 2019, 2020, 2021,
+2022, 2023 and 2025.

base-commit: 77ff73a920759437639e8eb77601e51409fefefa
-- 
2.48.1

What do you think?

-- 
Thanks,
Maxim