3

I recently used a starter template project for an API that is under the Apache 2.0 License, where the project doesn't have a NOTICE file and individual files in that project don't have their own license header.

For the sake of clarity and since I also want to add my own copyright line for the files that I modified, I added license headers with the original copyright holder by looking for the first committer of the project and its date.

According to 4(b): You must cause any modified files to carry prominent notices stating that You changed the files

Since according to this: How to comply with Apache 2.0 requirement to state that changes have been made to a file

Adding your own copyright line is considered to be a prominent enough notice that you modified the file
(Note: Although stating a date and the nature of the modification is not strictly needed, it's a good practice to do so)

So the license header for my modified files looks like this:

/* * Copyright [yyyy] [my name] * * Copyright [yyyy] [original copyright owner] and contributors * * 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. */

My question is:
Does adding the license header for the files that don't have them originally considered my modifications as well?

If so, should I also add my copyright line in those "unmodified" files because I modified them by adding the license headers?

Improve this question

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
3

Adding license information (e.g. as required by Apache 2.0) to each file is OK, there are no issues with that. You might also want to consider adding proper SPDX identifiers.

Adding the copyright information of the original copyright holder (which you might find and copy from the project pages on GitHub or elsewhere) is also OK, as long as you are sure that they are accurate and correct.

You should not add your own copyright notice to the files unless you have actually changed some of the code. The changes listed above are not creating any copyright for you.

If, however, you change some of the code in the file, and you add your own copyright notice in the file, then you should also add any copyright notice applicable to the original files. It would be inappropriate to only add your copyright and omit the copyright notice of other copyright holders.

Improve this answer
4

Does adding the license header for the files that don't have them originally considered my modifications as well?

If so, should I also add my copyright line in those "unmodified" files because I modified them by adding the license headers?

No, you should not add your copyright line to the files where you only added the license header.

Copyright exists to protect expressions of (human) creativity. Blindly adding a copyright header to files that lack one is not a creative act and therefore does not give you a copyright claim on those files.

You should only add a copyright line to those files that you have a copyright claim on.

Improve this answer

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.