[Python-Dev] Copyright notice

[Guido van Rossum]

> On startup, the current CVS python reports (on my system)
> 
> Python 2.0b1 (#31, Jul  1 2000, 23:13:39)  [GCC 2.95.2 19991024 (release)] on linux2
> Copyright 1991-1995 Stichting Mathematisch Centrum, Amsterdam
> Copyright 1995-2000 Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI)
> 
> Now that the file copyrights are changed, I expect this message to
> change as well. May I suggest that, instead of adding another line,
> the two last lines of this message are removed?
> 
> People who need to find out who holds the copyright to this software
> still can print sys.copyright.

I think I recall this was a convention that the GNU folks claim is
required from a legal standpoint.  E.g. when I start gdb, I get:

  GNU gdb 4.18
  Copyright 1998 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
  GDB is free software, covered by the GNU General Public License, and you are
  welcome to change it and/or distribute copies of it under certain conditions.
  Type "show copying" to see the conditions.
  There is absolutely no warranty for GDB.  Type "show warranty" for details.
  This GDB was configured as "i386-redhat-linux".
  (gdb)

The Python welcome message is a lot less verbose!

But I am not a lawyer (IANAL) and maybe the GNU folks are
superstitious about this.

On the other hand, why does it bother you?  (*NOT* a rhetorical question.)

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://dinsdale.python.org/~guido/)