[coreboot] [commit] r5717 - in trunk/src/superio/fintek: . f71863fg

[Corey Osgood]

On Wed, Aug 18, 2010 at 4:24 PM, xdrudis <xdrudis at tinet.cat> wrote:
> On Wed, Aug 18, 2010 at 03:07:04PM -0400, Corey Osgood wrote:
>>
>> Most of the code in these files is trivial and identical to every
>> other super IO, with the exception of changing the model name/number.
>> If we kept the copyright notices from every previous "author" of those
>> files, it would probably be a dozen names, none of whom actually wrote
>> the code in the first place.
>>
>> -Corey
>
> IANAL, but as far as I know triviality, obviousness or inventivity has
> nothing to do with copyright. The only requirement is originality (and
> maybe it depends on jurisdiction). I'm not sure what's the threshold
> for originality. In any case I believe if it isn't original it isn't
> copyrightable, so it makes no sense to add the last author name. In
> order to be legally able to remove a previous author name you should
> be sure that his or her part in the code is not copyrightable, and
> that is hard to argue. So I think it is much easier, safe and sound to
> keep a dozen (or a dozen dozens) list of authors than to remove a
> copyright notice, unless legal advice says otherwise, or some of the
> previous authors removes herself or asks to be removed.
>
> That being said, it wouldn't be the first time that I fail in doing
> this, but never on purpose (typically when copying parts of a file
> to another, not when copying the whole file and then changing it).

Here's the problem: some time ago, someone wrote a superio chip.h that
contained this:

#include <device/device.h>
#include <uart8250.h>

extern struct chip_operations superio_<manufacturer>_<partnum>_ops;

struct superio_<manufacturer>_<partnum>_config {
	struct uart8250 com1, com2;
};

Most likely the original file didn't even contain a copyright header
or name, and nearly all super IOs now contain this file. When I did
the f71805f port, I copied this file from some other super IO. Now, if
someone else uses this "template" for another super IO, they're most
likely going to change the manufacturer and/or part number, in effect
removing everything that I did to that file. So why should they leave
me as a copyright holder on the file?

-Corey