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Unidata / geoapi-netcdf-java

netCDF-Java wrappers for the OGC GeoAPI
BSD 3-Clause "New" or "Revised" License
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Which copyright header in Java files? #2

Closed desruisseaux closed 3 years ago

desruisseaux commented 3 years ago

Is the following copyright header okay? I copied it from NetcdfDataset.java. Some observations:

/*
 * Copyright 2021 University Corporation for Atmospheric Research/Unidata
 *
 *   Portions of this software were developed by the Unidata Program at the
 *   University Corporation for Atmospheric Research.
 *
 *   Access and use of this software shall impose the following obligations
 *   and understandings on the user. The user is granted the right, without
 *   any fee or cost, to use, copy, modify, alter, enhance and distribute
 *   this software, and any derivative works thereof, and its supporting
 *   documentation for any purpose whatsoever, provided that this entire
 *   notice appears in all copies of the software, derivative works and
 *   supporting documentation.  Further, UCAR requests that the user credit
 *   UCAR/Unidata in any publications that result from the use of this
 *   software or in any product that includes this software. The names UCAR
 *   and/or Unidata, however, may not be used in any advertising or publicity
 *   to endorse or promote any products or commercial entity unless specific
 *   written permission is obtained from UCAR/Unidata. The user also
 *   understands that UCAR/Unidata is not obligated to provide the user with
 *   any support, consulting, training or assistance of any kind with regard
 *   to the use, operation and performance of this software nor to provide
 *   the user with any updates, revisions, new versions or "bug fixes."
 *
 *   THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY UCAR/UNIDATA "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR
 *   IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED
 *   WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE
 *   DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL UCAR/UNIDATA BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL,
 *   INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING
 *   FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT,
 *   NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION
 *   WITH THE ACCESS, USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
 */
lesserwhirls commented 3 years ago

In netCDF-Java 5, we moved to the following copyright block:

/*
 * Copyright (c) <creation-year>-<last-significant-addition-year> University Corporation for Atmospheric Research/Unidata
 * See LICENSE for license information.
 */

and sometimes you will see a similar block that looks like:

/*
 * Copyright (c) <creation-year>-<last-significant-addition-year> <contributor name(s)> and University Corporation for Atmospheric Research/Unidata
 * See LICENSE for license information.
 */

Basically, the author of a contribution keeps the copyright to the code they contributed, but as part of the CLA, they agree that we have permission to distribute their contributions under they license we have in use (which is BSD-3).

For this code, I would say your name should be in the copyright (along with anyone else who has contributed to the code). If/when I make changes, I'll add UCAR to the copyright block, but no need to do so until that point.

desruisseaux commented 3 years ago

So the Java file header would contain only those 2 lines? (keeping Unidata in the copyright for simplicity)

/*
 * Copyright (c) 2012-2021 Geomatys and University Corporation for Atmospheric Research/Unidata
 * See LICENSE for license information.
 */
lesserwhirls commented 3 years ago

Yes, at least that is what we currently do in netCDF-Java (rather than including the license text in addition to the copyright notice). That said, I think it might be good to have a little more information about the license, for clarity. Perhaps something like:

/*
 * Copyright (c) 2012-2021 Geomatys and University Corporation for Atmospheric Research/Unidata
 * Distributed under the terms of the BSD 3-Clause License.
 * SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause
 * See LICENSE for license information.
 */

It's more clear than simply "See LICENSE for license information", and the LICENCE file would still have the full text.

desruisseaux commented 3 years ago

Merge request updated with above copyright header.