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List:       kde-core-devel
Subject:    Re: Extending the licensing policy: BSD license for cmake files
From:       Parker Coates <parker.coates () gmail ! com>
Date:       2009-09-06 19:38:26
Message-ID: 85d347350909061238l64f77130ve497cfc21b092801 () mail ! gmail ! com
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2009/9/6 Ingo Klöcker:
> On Sunday 06 September 2009, Harri Porten wrote:
>> On Sun, 6 Sep 2009, Ingo Klöcker wrote:
>> > How does repeating the term "Copyright", once spelled out and once
>> > written as "(C)" (which is not acknowledged by the Copyright laws),
>> > emphasize the copyright statement.
>>
>> Note I am talking about mortal readers rather than copyright laywers
>> here.
>>
>> The symbol is well known and eye-catching. The word spells things out
>> and provides a precise meaning. Whether it's redundant,
>> not-acknowledged ascii-art or even void is one thing. Unless some
>> laywers tell us that it *hurts* I wouldn't stop an author from
>> decreasing the chance of someone overlooking the notice or being able
>> able to claim so.
>>
>> > The circle C symbol is an alternative to spelling out the word
>> > Copyright. Either one uses the symbol (as abbreviation) or one
>> > uses "Copyright", but one never uses both in the same copyright
>> > statement.
>>
>> How do you mean by "one never uses"? I have personally seen hundreds
>> of copyright owners do so (grep your /usr/include for also recent
>> samples) and won't challenge the prudence of laywers from Nokia,
>> Apple and the like.
>
> I wasn't talking about source code, but about books. Hmm, forget it. In
> books it does indeed seem to be common to write
>   Copyright  © <year> <author>
>
> So much for the difference between theory and practice. I guess I'll
> stop advocating for omitting the (C). :-/

The following seems to be the official stance of the FSF [1], which I
think one can assume is a somewhat knowledgeable opinion.

'Always use the English word "Copyright"; by international convention,
this is used worldwide, even for material in other languages. The
copyright symbol " ©" can be included if you wish (and your character
set supports it), but it's not necessary. There is no legal
significance to using the three-character sequence "(C)", although it
does no harm.'

Parker

[1] http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl-howto.html

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