[GRASS-dev] Re: Copyright statement in source code

[Markus Neteler]

Hamish wrote on 08/31/2006 12:17 PM:
> Markus Neteler wrote:
>   
>> It is needed to check 'description.html' for the first author which
>> doesn't appear in the CVS Changelog in case the module is older
>> than 31 Dec. 1999 (the day when we started to maintain the code in
>> CVS). Better to always check 'description.html'.
>>     
>
> btw, if anyone isn't familiar with it, the web interface to the CVS is
> great for following development history over the last 6.5 years:
>
> http://freegis.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/#dirlist
>
> Can we arbitrarily add GPL notices to [public domain] code from pre-GPL
> versions of GRASS? (I guess so, we can do whatever we want with it....)
>   
... as far as no 3rd party rights are infringed. But we had the major
pre-GPL cleanup
where lots of code was removed. So: arbitrarily I would not say, but
"at best knowledge" we have to do this code vetting. After 10/1999 people
contributed knowingly to a GPL project, so that could should be covered.
If in doubt, contact the author(s).

Markus