Re: RFC: stop doing "grand replace" updates to copyright years

[Wol]

On 13/02/2023 22:50, Han-Wen Nienhuys wrote:
> > which sounds like exactly the opposite.

> I read it again, and you are right. The instructions say to update
> each file even if the file itself wasn't changed in that year. I guess
> the instructions codify what I find annoying in this practice: to
> touch files even if they weren't changed in any way.
My gut feeling is that this is actually fraud.

Strong words, I know, but if nothing creative has happened that is 
worthy of copyright, then to claim that the copyright has changed is 
just plain wrong.

I don't know the laws exactly with corporate copyrights, but seeing as 
the copyright clock only starts ticking for "real person" authors when 
they die, the reality is each person on project where copyright is NOT 
assigned should probably update their own personal copyright statement 
every time they make a change. But then that's horrendous header clutter...

Personally, I'd be happiest if everybody who updated a file was 
responsible for making sure the copyright date was updated 
appropriately, and we didn't make global changes as and when nothing has 
actually changed in the file.

Cheers,
Wol