[En-Nut-Discussion] RFC: Copyright of trivial code

[Harald Kipp]

Hi Henrik,

On 3/19/2011 3:48 AM, Henrik Maier wrote:
> I suggest to remove any copyright headers from trivial files and leave
> it to lawyers to determine if that trivial file can be protected or not
> or if it can be considered public domain.

Not adding any copyright notice at all is even more difficult to handle. 
It actually means, that the author didn't provide any license at all. 
It's up to the user to decide whether he risks any copyright violation.

>    * The following source file constitutes example program code and is
>    * intended merely to illustrate useful programming techniques.  The user
>    * is responsible for applying the code correctly.
>    * Re-use of this code is encouraged and the author does not claim any
> copyright for the following example code.

This may imply, that the author may have "stolen" the code and it's up 
to the user to find out, who's the original author.

But that's not what I want. Instead I wanted to declare, that the 
original authors will not claim any copyright and that the user is free 
to take it from these original authors for any purpose, under any license.

As Bernd correctly stated, at least in many European countries you 
cannot disclaim a copyright. Copyrights may expire, but the period is 
fixed by law.

Regards,

Harald