Copyright alterations

[Erik Trimble]

David Holmes wrote:
> Andrew John Hughes said the following on 04/10/10 10:30:
>> I just noticed this huge changeset that went into the hs17 branch of 
>> HotSpot:
>>
>> http://hg.openjdk.java.net/hsx/hsx17/master/rev/885e7f460925
>>
>> It alters all the copyright notices from Sun to Oracle.
>> Interestingly, it seems to change
>> the range of some copyright notices:
>>
>> e.g. from 
>> http://hg.openjdk.java.net/hsx/hsx17/master/diff/885e7f460925/src/os_cpu/linux_zero/vm/vmStructs_linux_zero.hpp 
>>
>>
>> - * Copyright 2003-2007 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
>> + * Copyright (c) 2003, 2007, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights
>> reserved.
>>
>> 2003-2007 and 2003, 2007 are not equivalent; one is a range also
>> including 2004, 2005 and 2006 and the other is not, it's just 2003 and
>> 2007.
>> Such a change seems wrong to me.
>
> First I am not a lawyer. :)
>
> This is the way Oracle expresses its copyright notices. A range is 
> still implied. The first year is the first year of copyright; the 
> second year is the year of the most recent change to the 
> file/document. Copyright still applies across all years in between.
>
> Cheers,
> David Holmes

As a followup (and, as the one who actually had to do all that work), 
the explanation I was given was that this was explicitly how Oracle 
wants copyright notices displayed.  I'm sure I don't know anything more 
about the intricate legalities of it, but that exactly (and, they were 
very specific) how it was supposed to be.

So, it's not a typo or anything.

For once, I'm glad IANAL.


-- 
Erik Trimble
Java System Support
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