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

[xdrudis]

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).

Xavi.