realaravinth
Proposal for a new file header
// This file is part of the GitPad program.
// Copyright 2022 The GitPad Authors. All rights reserved.
// Use of this source code is governed by the AGPL
// license that can be found in the LICENSE file.
The current header is imho too long and duplicated and too much work to maintain the list of contributors.
The header is not necessary (just a recommendation because of historical reasons) as stated in this part of the license:
The "Corresponding Source" for a work in object code form means all
the source code needed to generate, install, and (for an executable
work) run the object code and to modify the work, including scripts to
control those activities.
As discussed in DMs on matrix, the GNU project explicitly recommends attaching specific names to file headers. Also, please see “copyright notice” section in this page
The copyright notice should include the year in which you finished preparing the release (so if you finished it in 1998 but didn't post it until 1999, use 1998). You should add the proper year for each past release; for example, “Copyright 1998, 1999 Terry Jones” if some releases were finished in 1998 and some were finished in 1999. If several people helped write the code, use all their names.
I wouldn't be writing software if I felt that the software available today treats theirs users fairly. I would be very disappointed if my work is used/distributed in a way that violates its users' rights. So I will take every possible precautions to make sure that my work agrees with these principles.
So I am not going to change the license headers of the files that I've contributed/contribute to. New contributors are welcome to either attest their names or assign copyrights to "GitPad contributors", as you suggest.
edit: on maintenance, I disagree that it is a lot of work as copyright does change very often and even if it did, I volunteer to do it myself.
