How to minimize the amount of place used by GPL copyright notice?

Posted by Lukasz Lew on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by Lukasz Lew
Published on 2009-10-27T16:31:41Z Indexed on 2010/04/07 22:13 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 173

Filed under:

gpl

|

licensing

|

copyright

|

header

|

verbosity

Gnu GPL page advocates a following header in each file of GPL project:

This file is part of Foobar.

Foobar 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 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

Foobar 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 Foobar. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.

I find this an over kill. Can't it be shorter and somehow refer to COPYING or LICENCE file?

© Stack Overflow or respective owner

Related posts about gpl

GPL code allowing non-GPL local copies of nondistributed code

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
I have come across a book that claims that alterations and augmentations to GPL works can be kept close-source as long as these are not redistributed into the wild. Therefore, customizations of websites deriving from GPL packages need not be released under the GPL and developers can earn profit on… >>> More
Licensing software that uses GPL code with licenses other than GPL

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Let's say I write some code, which we'll call X. It uses some GPL code, let's call it library Y. Clearly I would have to release X with a GPL license. That's fine. My question is, can I additionally release X under a license such as MIT, so that if someone only wants X but not Y they don't need to… >>> More
Does using GCC specific builtins qualify as incorporation within a project?

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
I understand that linking to a program licensed under the GPL requires that you release the source of your program under the GPL as well, while the LGPL does not require this. The terminology of the (L)GPL is very clear about this. #include "gpl_program.h" means you'd have to license GPL, because… >>> More
"Integratable" but not "integrated" GPL

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
There has been much debate over whether or not merely linking to a piece of code makes it a derivative work. I know FSF says "yes", so according to them I can't dynamically link a non-GPL compatible program to a GPL library and distribute the whole. But I could do that for private use, as long as… >>> More
GPL: does one line of GPLed code make program a "derived work"

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
I've recently run into some argument with a person that claims to be a lawyer (I have my suspicions about this not being completely true, though). As far as I know, copying even one line of code from GPLed program into proprietary body of code requires you to release the whole thing under GPL, if… >>> More

Related posts about licensing

Windows Server 2008 / SQL 2008 Licensing for Authenticated Web Application

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
Hello, I'm trying to crunch some numbers to see what the software costs involved are for hosting an application we are developing. Users will not be anonymous - they will need to log in. SQL Server 2008: SQL Server licensing is easy - it will be licensed per-processor. No real fuss there. The… >>> More
Copy protection and licensing tools.

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I'm new to stackoverflow.com after hearing about it from Jon Skeet on DotNetRocks.This seems like the perfect place to ask this question. I am in the middle of trying to find a 3rd party Copy protection and licensing tool. The company that I work with have 4 products that need to be protected. We… >>> More
Don't Forget About Software Licensing

as seen on Internet.com - Search for 'Internet.com'
Is your company developing software for sale or distribution? If yes, your company needs a sales policy and a flexible, commercially feasible licensing model. >>> More
Need help with software licensing? Read on…

as seen on Geeks with Blogs - Search for 'Geeks with Blogs'
Figuring out which software licensing options best suit your needs while being cost-effective can be confusing. Some businesses end up making their purchases through retail stores which means they miss out on volume licensing opportunities and others may unknowingly be using unlicensed software which… >>> More
Can I use `UnlockCommercialFeatures` for developing Java applications without a commercial license?

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
As of Java 7 Update 40, Oracle is now including Java Mission Control in the JDK. Being always interested in a new profiling tool, I decided to check it out. However, trying to start Flight Recorder against a process, I get the following error, Now I'm getting cold feet about adding the JVM option… >>> More