R devel - Oct 2004 - copyright issues when package maintainer changes

I will be taking over as maintainer of the its package from Giles Heywood.
The code was originally written while he was working at Commerzbank.  I have
added the header below to the top of the R source file to indicate the
changes in the copyrights for the code.  The package was originally released
under GPL2.  I have no experience with copyright issues, and would
appreciate it if someone who does would kindly indicate whether the header
below is correct and conforms with normal practice.

Thanks in advance,
Whit Armstrong


<header in R source file itspkg.r>
#    itspkg.r: a time series library in R
#    Copyright (C) 2003 to June 2004 Commerzbank Securities
#    Copyright (C) June 2004 to present Whit Armstrong
#
#    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
#    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
#    the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
#    (at your option) any later version.
#
#    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
#    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
#    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
#    GNU General Public License for more details.
#
#    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
#    along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
#    Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307
USA
</header in R source file itspkg.r>


	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

On Mon, 25 Oct 2004, Whit Armstrong wrote:
> I will be taking over as maintainer of the its package from Giles Heywood.
> The code was originally written while he was working at Commerzbank.  I
have
> added the header below to the top of the R source file to indicate the
> changes in the copyrights for the code.  The package was originally
released
> under GPL2.  I have no experience with copyright issues, and would
> appreciate it if someone who does would kindly indicate whether the header
> below is correct and conforms with normal practice.
Well, GPL2 is a licence, not a copyright.  I don't know what country you 
are in, whereas Giles was in the UK -- copyright issues are somewhat 
country-specific.

However, two recommendations:

1) only give the year of the changes.  They can overlap.
2) only add your copyright statement to files you actually change
(and not just change by adding a copyright statement but adding something 
with intellectual content).

This is all untested waters and let's hope it remains that way!
> Thanks in advance,
> Whit Armstrong
> 
> 
> <header in R source file itspkg.r>
> #    itspkg.r: a time series library in R
> #    Copyright (C) 2003 to June 2004 Commerzbank Securities
> #    Copyright (C) June 2004 to present Whit Armstrong
> #
> #    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
> #    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
> #    the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
> #    (at your option) any later version.
> #
> #    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
> #    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
> #    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
> #    GNU General Public License for more details.
> #
> #    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
> #    along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
> #    Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307
> USA
> </header in R source file itspkg.r>
-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley@stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595