Re: copyright notice format

[Alan Cox <alan redhat com>]

> > (C) <first-year-code-was-published> <author>.

USSA law is not everywhere law. Unifying 1997.1998.1999 to 1997-1999 is fine.

> >change the strings every year which is very annoying because it produces
> >new strings for the translators. Additionally, I think in this case the

Perl one liner challenge  8)

> >Next I did was using Free Software Foundation_, Inc._ or Red Hat_, Inc._
> >as a reference to companies. This makes clear that no individual holds

"Inc" is also US specific. Be careful with that. In the UK for example
it is "Ltd" "Plc" etc. Other countries have a huge range of names such
as "gmbh" "oy" and the like. The Ltd/Plc/Inc obviously shouldn't be 
translated.

> >commited the changes. Some read "The Free Software Foundation" (, Inc.
> >missing), some "Red Hat Inc." (missing comma) and so on.
> >I hope you now understand a bit why I started the discussion on
> >gnome-i18n.

Making the comma regular makes sense. Perhaps this should be added to
the style guide ? Especially now James has some cites to other more
reference grade documentation on copyright and copyright law.

Alan