+HOW TO MAINTAIN COPYRIGHT YEARS FOR GNU EMACS
+Maintaining copyright years is now very simple: every time a new year
+rolls around, add that year to every FSF (and AIST) copyright notice.
- THIS DOCUMENT IS UNDER REVIEW.
+There's no need to worry about whether an individual file has changed
+in a given year - it's sufficient that Emacs as a whole has changed.
- DO NOT FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS -- THEY ARE NOT CORRECT.
+Therefore the years are updated en-masse near the start of each year,
+so basically there is no need for most people to do any updating of them.
+The current (in 2011) version of "Information for Maintainers of GNU
+Software" (see that document for more details) says that it is OK to use
+ranges in copyright years, so in early 2011 the years were changed to use
+ranges, which occupy less space and do not grow in length every year.
-How to Maintain Copyright Years for GNU Emacs
+For more detailed information on maintaining copyright, see the file
+"copyright" in this directory.
+The previous policy was more complex, but is now only of historical
+interest (see versions of this file from before 2009).
-Principle: Individual files need to have the year of the release
- in the copyright notice if there is significant change.
+The refcards in etc/refcards can print only the latest copyright year,
+but should keep the full list in a comment in the source.
-Practice:
+"Our lawyer says it is ok if we add, to each file that has been in Emacs
+ since Emacs 21 came out in 2001, all the subsequent years[1]. We don't
+ need to check whether *that file* was changed in those years.
+ It's sufficient that *Emacs* was changed in those years (and it was!).
+
+ For those files that have been added since then, we should add
+ the year it was added to Emacs, and all subsequent years."
+
+ --RMS, 2005-07-13
-- individual files
- - each must be examined, along w/ its history, by a human
- - automated tools facilitate but can never replace this process
-
-- year of the release
- - may be different from year of file introduction,
- or year of last significant change
- - sometimes the release year slips, leaving a file w/ prematurely
- marked release year => need update (e.g., s/2004/2005/ for Emacs 22)
- - intervening years (between releases) are not valid and may cause
- embarrassment later in case of dispute => remove (however, see next)
- - years for new files (merged, contributed) that have been separately
- published are valid even if between releases => leave alone
-
-- significant change
- - insignificant
- - whitespace
- - copyright notice
- - version control tags
- - simple var/func renaming
- - in-file reorganization/reordering
- - typos
- - small bugfixes
- - small docfixes
- - filename renaming
- - most everything else is significant
- - change to interface
- - change in functionality
- - new file
- - many small changes may be significant in aggregate
-
-- when in doubt, ask (and update these guidelines -- thanks!)
-
-- sometimes people make mistakes
- - if they have not read these guidelines, point them here
- - if the guidelines are not helpful, improve the guidelines
+[1] Note that this includes 2001 - see
+<http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-pretest-bug/2006-12/msg00119.html>