Re: [bug-gettext] Bug#682580: xgettext: fails to properly replace some placeholders in output .pot (PACKAGE, YEAR, C. HOLDER) (fwd)

[Francesco Poli]

On Tue, 14 Jul 2015 10:48:20 +0900 Daiki Ueno wrote:

> > I noticed that xgettext does not properly replace all the relevant
> > placeholders in the output .pot file, when told to do so through
> > command-line options.
> 
> I doubt if it is meaningful to have a real copyright notice in an
> auto-generated template file.

Well, the auto-generated .pot file is auto-generated by extracting many
strings from a number of copyrighted source code files.
I think that, in most cases, this implies that the .pot file is
copyrighted and has the same copyright owners and copyright years as
the source files.
As a consequence, I think it makes definitely sense for it to carry
real copyright notices (the same that cover the source files, in most
cases).

> 
> The gettext manual suggests that those placeholders shall be replaced by
> translators:
> http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/manual/html_node/Header-Entry.html#Header-Entry

I think that the translation .po files are generally to be considered
as derivative works based on the .pot template file.
They are therefore copyrighted by the copyright owners of the .pot
template file *and* by the translator(s).

Hence, I think it makes sense that the translator(s) may *add* their own
copyright notices, if they feel like doing so, but they should _not_
*replace* the original copyright notices with their own notices...


Please let me know what you think about my reasoning.
Thanks for your time!


-- 
 http://www.inventati.org/frx/
 There's not a second to spare! To the laboratory!
..................................................... Francesco Poli .
 GnuPG key fpr == CA01 1147 9CD2 EFDF FB82  3925 3E1C 27E1 1F69 BFFE

pgpcoOPUedkAM.pgp
Description: PGP signature