Use static copyright years

[hugovk]

Short version

Each January we update the PSF copyright years in the repo:

Copyright © 2001-2024 Python Software Foundation. All rights reserved.

2025 is approaching.

Can we get permission from the PSF to adopt a copyright that does not need updating every year?

I suggest something like one of the following:

Copyright © Python Software Foundation. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2001 Python Software Foundation. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2001-present Python Software Foundation. All rights reserved.

Longer version

Last year, we updated it in 15 places in 10 files:

• 2024 Update copyright years to 2024. #113608

Sometimes we miss a few and have to update them later:

• 2023 Update copyright years to 2023. #100848
  Update additional copyright years to 2023. #100859

• 2022 Update copyright year to 2022. #30335

Or we miss something, merge the fix a year late, which needs refixing:

• 2021 Bring Python into the new year. #24036
  Update README.rst #25514
  Fix copyright years in README.rst #31347
• 2020 Bring Python into the next decade. #17801
• 2019 Bump copyright years to 2019. #11404
• 2018 advance copyright years to 2018 #5094
• 2017 Update copyright PSF to 2001-2017 #3421

And sometimes we backport these to (some) older branches, but other years don't:

• 2023 [3.11] Update copyright years to 2023. (gh-100848) #100849
  [3.10] Update copyright years to 2023. (gh-100848). #100850
  [3.9] Update copyright years to 2023. (gh-100848). #100851
  [3.8] Update copyright years to 2023. (gh-100848). #100852
  [3.7] Update copyright years to 2023. (gh-100848). #100853
• 2022 [3.10] Update copyright year to 2022. (GH-30335) #30336
  [3.9] Update copyright year to 2022. (GH-30335) #30337
• 2020 [3.8] Bring Python into the next decade. (GH-17801) #17802
  [3.7] Bring Python into the next decade. (GH-17801). #17803
  [3.6] Bring Python into the next decade. (GH-17801). #17804
  [2.7] Bring Python into the next decade. (GH-17801). #17805
• 2021 [3.9] Bring Python into the new year. (GH-24036) #24045
  [3.8] Bring Python into the new year. (GH-24036) #24046
  [3.7] Bring Python into the new year. (GH-24036) #24047
  [3.7] Bring Python into the new year. (GH-24036) #24052
  [3.6] Bring Python into the new year (GH-24036) #24054
• 2019 [3.7] Bump copyright years to 2019. (GH-11404). #11406
  [3.6] Bump copyright years to 2019. (GH-11404). #11407
  [2.7] Bump copyright years to 2019. (GH-11404). #11408
• 2018 [3.6] advance copyright years to 2018 (GH-5094) #5104
  [2.7] advance copyright years to 2018 (GH-5094). #5105

Sometimes there's lots of duplicate PRs that end up closed and wasting everyone's time:

• README: Use range of years for copyright #6723
• Add 2018 #5069
• Added 2017 to copyright years at the bottom #76
• Update copyright years #62
• Update Copyright dates in README #56
• Update Python Software Foundation Copyright Year. #4

Not only is this tedious work, it is likely unnecessary. A lot of big projects have stopped updating copyright years: https://hynek.me/til/copyright-years/

For example:

Copyright (c) 2009 The Go Authors. All rights reserved.
Copyright (c) 2015 - present Microsoft Corporation
Copyright 2013 Netflix, Inc.
Copyright (c) Meta Platforms, Inc. and affiliates.
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Copyright (c) .NET Foundation and Contributors

These either have only have the first year, omit years altogether, or end with "present".

Can we do something similar?

Linked PRs

• gh-126133: Only use start year in PSF copyright, remove end years #126236

[Wulian233]

+1
I also suggestion deleting the years of PSF 2001-20xx in other files. This should always be up to date. Currently, files with these rows are searched (200x 201x) over nearly 10~20 years. I don't think they need to repeat the statement because it's already stipulated in the LICENSE. But that's a lot of files to change (edit ~20)

example:
https://github.com/python/cpython/tree/main/Lib/email/iterators.py

2001-200x
https://github.com/search?q=repo:python/cpython 2001-200&type=code

2001-201x
https://github.com/search?q=repo:python/cpython 2001-201&type=code

[gpshead]

IMNSHO lets just adopt this already. Do not update existing copyright dates in existing files.

Ex: From other your examples above - Google's policy was always "never touch the year" with the year of file creation or copyright statement addition being the standard. As noted in https://opensource.google/documentation/reference/releasing/preparing#license-headers

[hugovk]

Do you mean leave them as-is, and stop updating them each year?

However, I expect we will still see many PRs from people who see "2001-2024" and want to help by updating to "2001-2025". It will be easy, though tedious, for us to close them, but at the expense of having wasted the time of contributors.

Or to remove the end years?

I think this is better, as I doubt we'll get PRs updating "2001" to "2001-2025". Here's a draft PR to illustrate: #126236.

[AA-Turner]

From that draft PR -- seeing the version with '2024' removed as the end year leads me to slightly prefer the 'YYYY - present' option, especially in lists of several prior copyright assignments. Hugo's option 1 (no year) would also render this moot, though is slightly less consistent.

I would also suggest removing copyright comments from modules/files where the PSF is the only cited copyright holder, as this is simply duplicative information.

A

[gpshead]

I would also suggest removing copyright comments from modules/files where the PSF is the only cited copyright holder, as this is simply duplicative information.

I wouldn't remove entire copyright statements from anywhere.

Hugo should reach out to the PSF (as copyright holder) for advice. Our goal is to simplify our life, have a policy to point to, and reduce toil.

We should codify said advice in our dev guide and simply reply to anyone attempting to modify copyright statements with a link to that documentation.

[hugovk]

I've emailed PSF legal.