• @kevincox@lemmy.ml
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    31 year ago

    Disclaimer IANAL

    I think this is obvious and widely known. Copyright is not something that you need to apply for, declare or otherwise explicitly get. All eligible work that any human creates is automatically protected under copyright.

    The reason for the years in copyright notices is documentation. It makes it a bit easier to convince someone that this code is still under copyright because it is less than X years old. It can also serve as a base for invalidating patents as this code was clearly written before the patents.

    But the actual declaration probably doesn’t mean much. If I submit code to a project without signing away the rights I probably still own the copyright for that code even if the top of the file says Copyright Some Guy 2020. (Talk to your lawyer if this is important, I wouldn’t want to be in a fight over if adding code to a file with a copyright declaration at the top is explicit enough to be considered a knowing assignment.) Similarly if the code wasn’t written in 2022 I don’t think it matters that the top of the file says 2022, the date that each particular bit of code was authored matters, not what the top of the file says.

    So the year was probably a holdout from products such as books and software CDs that had a definite start and end date when released. In those contexts the documentation easily holds its weight. This is similar to why companies still stick Copyright FooCorp all over the top of their files. It isn’t necessary but is low cost documentation that makes things a bit easier if this does ever end up in court.