Question

I’m working on a FOSS project where I am the main contributor. In each source file I have a copyright and license statement at the top of the file. The copyright notice names me as copyright holder. From time to time I get contributions by other developers. Sometimes these contributions add new files and sometimes they just change existing files.

What is, in FOSS world, the usual or recommended practice to declare copyright with regard to minor contributors? I can think of those options:

• Just mention the major contributors in the copyright notice and add minor contributors to a THANKS or a CONTRIBUTORS file.
• Just mention the major contributors in the copyright notice and add minor contributors as (additional) authors in the source files they created or changed.
• Add minor contributors to the copyright holders in each file they’ve changed or created.

Thanks in advance for some hints.

Answer 1

I would assign the copyright to “Its contributors” and provide a list of all contributors (separated by major and minor if you wish) in a separate file. It also allows you to properly attribute contributors who do not directly commit code to the project.

Your source control system should keep track of who commits what changes, and for most projects it really shouldn’t be that important anyway. On an open source project especially, it is the end product that matters, and not the line-by-line contributions.