Hello All,

I got source code of some software, found there is copyright statement at the top of almost every .c or .h files. I would like to remove them or replace with other statement via a tool or simple shell script.

Can any one give me some suggestions?

Thanks

Yeah! Don't do it at all! That's called copyright infringement!

Not totally sure, but I believe the proper/acceptable way to do that is to ADD lines giving your copyright, indicating that you've made changes to the source, but that's a gray area to me because if you just change one file, one line, to me it's not like you're supposed to then claim copyright for every file.

OK, maybe it's really old and the originator no longer exists. I find that difficult to believe, and secondly ... create your own code! If it is really old, it's probably out of date and requires updating. Using that code as a guide to create something similar, but up to date might be acceptable if you don't copy verbatim the entire architecture.

Any open source license requires that copyright statements remain in place. If you change code you can add your own copyright to the files, but changing a file does not make the original copyright invalid.

There are cases where replacing the copyright is allowed, but for now this thread will be closed. If you want to have it reopened contact me via email, but I will have to look at the code first.