Re: Copyright notices

[Jim Blandy <jimb at red-bean dot com>]

On 2/11/06, Daniel Jacobowitz <drow@false.org> wrote:
> Emacs already has some widgetry to add copyright years, doesn't it?
> Can that easily work on a list of files?

Sure, it'd just take a little bit of lisp.

The way I've got it hooked up is to have it check automatically for a
Copyright notice to update when I save a file:

;;;; Offer to update copyright years.
(add-hook 'write-file-hook 'copyright-update)

I hit C-x C-s, and it offers to update the year for me if it's not current.

There's disagreement on what the right thing is, legally.  Certainly
the FSF has lawyers on hand to give them opinions.  But if I'm
recalling this right, Dan Berlin (who is a lawyer), argues that to
slap a copyright year on a file when that file has not been
significantly changed in that year amounts to a false assertion. 
That's the year that determines when the copyright expires, so you
would appear to be trying to exaggerate the amount of protection the
file should receive.  And false assertions like that weaken your case,
in the court's eyes.

But don't worry: Disney will make sure that nothing ever goes out of
copyright again, regardless of when it was last changed, so this is
all moot.