On Sep 25, 2013, at 4:25 PM, Paul Eggert <eggert@cs.ucla.edu> wrote:
On 09/25/13 10:02, Zefram wrote:
Can we come up with some consistent formatting rules to make the PD notices machine readable?
The intent has always been that the database is public-domain, with the exception of a few source files that are derived from BSD and therefore have a BSD license. So the consistent formatting rule can be "assume PD unless there's a copyright notice". You can look for copyright notices by searching for "Copyright ©".
I'd rather not add an explicit public-domain notice to each file, as that'd be clutter, and it'd mean our copy of leap-seconds.list would have to differ from the NIST original.
Fair enough. But you need to be explicit about public domain, because the default status of any work is that it is subject to copyright. So a README file that states the rule you mentioned would work. Better might be a README file that explicitly lists the files in the public domain. paul