[U-Boot-Users] [PATCH 6/7] NAND: add NAND driver for s3c64xx

[Guennadi Liakhovetski]

On Thu, 31 Jul 2008, Wolfgang Denk wrote:

> > --- /dev/null
> > +++ b/drivers/mtd/nand/s3c64xx.c
> > @@ -0,0 +1,315 @@
> > +/*
> > + * (C) Copyright 2006 DENX Software Engineering
> 
> Please add your name here.

I will add my copyright in a couple of files, but I would rather not add 
it to Makefiles. Below I quote an earlier post on this list (funnily, I 
wasn't able to get it in sourceforge's archive...), which addresses 
Copyrights in Makefiles. To me it sounds reasonable, because in my example 
I really added very little "IP" to it, almost exclusively copy-paste from 
other Makefiles. What I learned, is one may never delete copyrights from 
files, ones they are there, that's why I preserved yours - that's how this 
file was in Samsung's version. But I don't think my Copyright there will 
serve any good purpose.

> > +/*
> > + * Function to print out oob buffer for debugging
> > + * Written by jsgood
> 
> Then jsgood should be mentioned in the (C) lines?

Is it allowed to add other peaople's copyright without their consent?

I am working on the rest comments... cleaning up others' mess.

Thanks
Guennadi
---
Guennadi Liakhovetski, Ph.D.

DENX Software Engineering GmbH,     MD: Wolfgang Denk & Detlev Zundel
HRB 165235 Munich, Office: Kirchenstr.5, D-82194 Groebenzell, Germany
Phone: +49-8142-66989-0 Fax: +49-8142-66989-80  Email: office at denx.de

###################################
########### QUOTED MAIL ###########
###################################

>From gerald.vanbaren at ge.com Wed Jul  9 14:11:51 2008
Date: Wed, 09 Jul 2008 08:09:10 -0400
From: Jerry Van Baren <gerald.vanbaren at ge.com>
To: Guennadi Liakhovetski <lg at denx.de>
Cc: Jens Gehrlein <sew_s at tqs.de>, u-boot-users at lists.sourceforge.net
Subject: Re: [U-Boot-Users] [PATCH 04/10 v2] [ARM] TQMA31: add new board with i.MX31 processor

Guennadi Liakhovetski wrote:
> On Tue, 8 Jul 2008, Jens Gehrlein wrote:
> 
> > diff --git a/board/tqc/tqma31/Makefile b/board/tqc/tqma31/Makefile
> > new file mode 100644
> > index 0000000..f7e17c8
> > --- /dev/null
> > +++ b/board/tqc/tqma31/Makefile
> > @@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
> > +#
> > +# Copyright (C) 2008, Guennadi Liakhovetski <lg at denx.de>
> > +# Copyright (C) 2008, Jens Gehrlein <sew_s at tqs.de>
> 
> Thanks for the credit, but, although IANAL, I think, one does not _have_ to
> preserve the copyright of the original file when it gets copied to a new one.
> Otherwise most open-source files would have a veeeery long list of
> Copyrights:-) Am I right?
> 
> Thanks
> Guennadi

IANAL, but I play one on Groklaw sometimes, much to PJ's chagrin. ;-)

This is a squishy area.  It is dependent on what of the original work survives
the modification and whether the surviving pieces are copyrightable.  It also
depends on what country you are contemplating suing in.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limitations_and_exceptions_to_copyright>

Things that must be done in certain ways are not copyrightable, so Makefiles are
pretty marginal to start with IMHO.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threshold_of_originality>

My opinion is to leave the original copyright notice in there and err on the
side of preserving reasonable copyright notices.  The lawyers will be happy to
tell us that we did it wrong if it ever came to a lawsuit, and I would prefer
that they tell us that we had a useless copyright notice in the file rather than
tell us that we should have had a notice but didn't...

Best regards,
gvb