Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer.
On 5/30/08, Jaime Villate <villate at fe.up.pt> wrote:
> You're absolutely right. Notice that in the footer of the Webpages we
> are currently making the same mistake:
>
> (c) 2002?2008 Maxima CAS development team.
Yeah, that should also be corrected (or just cut it out).
> I've just committed to the CVS a complete ChangeLog file for the English
> version of the manual. There are actually not that many parties
> involved; what makes it complicated is that different contributors have
> appear at different types. Based on the CVS ChangeLog, I would suggest
> the following copyright:
>
> Copyright (c) 2000, 2001, W. Schelter
> Copyright (c) 2002, J. Amundson, W. Jenker, D. Stanger, R. Toy
> ?Copyright (c) 2003, J. Amundson, D. Billinghurst, D. Stanger, R. Toy
> Copyright (c) 2004, J. Amundson, D. Billinghurst, R. Dodier, D. Stanger,
> V. Toth, R. Toy, V.V. Zhytnikov
> Copyright (c) 2005, J. Amundson, D. Billinghurst, R. Dodier, M.R.
> Riotorto, D. Stanger, V. Toth, R. Toy, B. Willis, V.V. Zhytnikov
> Copyright (c) 2006, J.B. Abreu, J. Amundson, D. Billinghurst, R. Dodier,
> M.R.Riotorto, D. Stanger, V. Toth, R. Toy, V. van Nek, J. Villate,
> A. Vodopivec, B. Willis, V.V. Zhytnikov
> Copyright (c) 2007, J.B. Abreu, J. Amundson, D. Billinghurst, R. Dodier,
> D. Gildea, M.R.Riotorto, D. Stanger, V. Toth, R. Toy, V. van Nek,
> J. Villate, A. Vodopivec, B. Willis, V.V. Zhytnikov
> Copyright (c) 2008, J.B. Abreu, J. Amundson, D. Billinghurst, R. Dodier,
> A. Eder, D. Gildea, M.R.Riotorto, D. Stanger, V. Toth, R. Toy,
> V. van Nek, J. Villate, A. Vodopivec, B. Willis, V.V. Zhytnikov
>
> what do you think?
This is a good start. However, the list above should be limited only
to those who made original contributions. For a derivative work,
the copyright is held by the copyright holder of the original work.
A translation (Russian, Spanish, or Portuguese) is a derived work.
I am pretty sure minor changes (format, typos, rewording) also create
a derived work.
Thanks a lot for working on this list. I know it is tedious,
but I think it is a valuable effort.
> The next question will be: should we keep the "GPL v.2 or later", or
> should we already use "GPL v.3 or later"?
We (current contributors) are not in position to change the license
from what Bill Schelter assigned, namely GPL v2.
If you want to change it, you will have to get approval from Schelter's
estate, and everyone who has made original contributions since then.
FWIW
Robert Dodier