Re: copyright years: mass-update every January 1

[Jim Meyering]

Philip Rowlands wrote:
> On Thu, 25 Jun 2009, Alfred M. Szmidt wrote:
>
>> It doesn't affect it at all, if you use a version of coreutils from
>> 1980, then the copyright term will be from that date.  If you use a
>> version from 2100 then it will be from that date.
>
> OK, but taken separately the files have/had dates to indicate the most
> recent amendment. I'm curious whether the "slavish copying" (to use a
> phrase from a relevant case) of old to new file, updating only the
> date, contributes sufficient originality to defend the change in
> public-domain date.

It's trivial to determine via git when the last non-copyright-update
change was for a given file, so I think this doesn't change anything.

> Just trying to illustrate the point here; I don't intend to start a
> long thread, merely taking an interest in clarity of copyright
> terms/expiry in general.