Should LICENSE contain a copyright notice ?

[roelz-em]

Should the copyright notice be completed ?
Copyright [yyyy] [name of copyright owner]
https://github.com/apache/logging-log4net/blob/master/LICENSE#L189C3-L189C46

[FreeAndNil]

@roelz-em thanks for the hint. I've adjusted the placeholder.

[FreeAndNil]

I've copied the line from
https://github.com/apache/logging-log4j2/blob/2.x/LICENSE.txt#L190

[FreeAndNil]

@ppkarwasz see ICLA §2
https://www.apache.org/licenses/icla.pdf

2. Grant of Copyright License. Subject to the terms and conditions of
   this Agreement, You hereby grant to the Foundation and to
   recipients of software distributed by the Foundation a perpetual,
   worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable
   copyright license to reproduce, prepare derivative works of,
   publicly display, publicly perform, sublicense, and distribute Your
   Contributions and such derivative works.

[FreeAndNil]

@ppkarwasz I think you are right. There were already some discussions about the topic.
https://lists.apache.org/thread/5pt17s291y68oy26mbt0yk3jjovx221m
Should I revert my changes? Should I delete the Copyright line?

[ppkarwasz]

I would copy/paste the contents of https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0.txt
to the LICENSE.txt file.

The line:

   Copyright [yyyy] [name of copyright owner]

should IMHO stay as is. It is there to tell people how to apply the license to a generic project.

For ASF projects it is more complex:

// Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more 
// contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with
// this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership. 
// The ASF licenses this file to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0
// (the "License");

We license the code to the ASF and the ASF licenses it back to users.

[roelz-em]

Thanks for the detailed information.

[roelz-em]

I am referring to https://github.com/apache/logging-log4net/blob/master/LICENSE
The page shows "License and copyright notice" under "Conditions"
The license file is part of the log4net repository.
On usage of log4net, a copyright notice shall be included in the software using it.
The license file does not contain a log4net copyright notice.

[ppkarwasz]

If you are talking about the annex to the license, IMHO it should stay as is:

logging-log4net/LICENSE

Lines 178 to 201 in 40dd388

	APPENDIX: How to apply the Apache License to your work.
	To apply the Apache License to your work, attach the following
	boilerplate notice, with the fields enclosed by brackets "[]"
	replaced with your own identifying information. (Don't include
	the brackets!) The text should be enclosed in the appropriate
	comment syntax for the file format. We also recommend that a
	file or class name and description of purpose be included on the
	same "printed page" as the copyright notice for easier
	identification within third-party archives.
	Copyright [yyyy] [name of copyright owner]
	Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
	you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
	You may obtain a copy of the License at
	http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
	Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
	distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
	WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
	See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
	limitations under the License.

That is just a template, the copyright statements are in the NOTICE file: https://github.com/apache/logging-log4net/blob/master/NOTICE
This file is in line with the ASF source header and copyright notice policy.

Note also that the contributors grant the ASF a Copyright License, I doubt that means the ASF becomes the Copyright Owner. That is why the headers of our products don't have a copyright notice and just mention that the rightful copyright owners gave the ASF a lot of rights and the ASF gives those rights to you. @grobmeier, did I miss something?

[roelz-em]

Thanks. I did not know about the NOTICE file and expected the copyright notice to be contained in the LICENSE file (The license is referenced in the NuGet package).

[FreeAndNil]

@roelz-em we include the copyright additionally in the log4net.nuspec file inside the nuget package:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<package xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/packaging/2013/05/nuspec.xsd">
  <metadata>
    <id>log4net</id>
    <version>3.0.0</version>
    <title>Apache log4net</title>
    <authors>The Apache Software Foundation</authors>
    ...
    <license type="expression">Apache-2.0</license>
    <licenseUrl>https://licenses.nuget.org/Apache-2.0</licenseUrl>
    <copyright>Copyright 2004-2024 The Apache Software Foundation</copyright>
    ...
  </metadata>
</package>