Previous: Trademarks, Up: Legal Issues
There is no parallel node in GNU Standards.
Almost all files in a distribution should bear copyright notices at their beginning, using the appropriate commenting device for that file. For example, a shell script might begin that way:
#! /bin/sh
# one-line description of the script
# Copyright (C) years Free Software Foundation, Inc.
# author name <email address>, initial year.
# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
# the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
# any later version.
# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
# WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
# General Public License for more details.
# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
# along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
# Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307,
# USA.
In this example, the very first line (the zeroth line) is mandatory only because of the shell script nature of the file. Most files do not need such a line.
The first line is a quick description of the purpose of the file, with maybe some indication for the package this file pertains to.
The second line gives list of years for the copyrights, and the following presentations are all acceptable:
Copyright (C) 1994, 1995, 1996 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Copyright (C) 1991, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Copyright (C) 1989,90,91,92,93,94,95,96 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
trying to fit all years in a single line. However, this:
Copyright (C) 1989-1996 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
is not acceptable.
The third line might be nearly the only place where you identify yourself as the author of this file, telling how to reach you, and when you did start writing this file initially.
The rest of the lines is the copyleft reference, explaining how to obtain the GPL itself. You should put such copylefts on, unless the files are small (letter from Richard, 1990-04-10).