Question

I need to include a copyright statement at the top of every Python source file I produce:

#   Copyright: © 2008 etc. 

However, when I then run such a file I get this message:

SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character ‘\xa9’ in file MyFile.py on line 3, but no encoding declared; see http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0263.html for details.

Apparently Python isn’t happy about the copyright symbol because it assumes the source file is all in ASCII. Either I need to make my first line be:

# -*- coding: iso-8859-1 -*- 

to tell Python I’m using Latin encoding, or I can change the copyright statement to:

#   Copyright: \xa9 2008 etc. 

which just possibly doesn’t have the same legal standing.

Is there a more elegant solution?

Answer 1

The copyright symbol in ASCII is spelled (c) or ‘Copyright‘.

See circular 61, Copyright Registration for Computer Programs.

While it’s true that the legal formalism (see Circular 1, Copyright Basics) is

The symbol © (the letter C in a circle), or the word “Copyright,” or the abbreviation “Copr.”; and…

And it’s also true that

To guarantee protection for a copyrighted work in all UCC member countries, the notice must consist of the symbol © (the word “Copyright” or the abbreviation is not acceptable)

You can dig through circular 3 and 38a.

This has, however, already been tested in court. It isn’t an interesting issue. If you do a search for ‘(c) acceptable for c-in-a-circle’, you’ll find that lawyers all agree that (c) is an acceptable substitute. See Perle and Williams. See Scott on Information Technology Law.