Re: copyright message with(out) directives

[James Youngman]

On Tue, Jul 12, 2005 at 12:52:42AM -0700, Paul Eggert wrote:

> So -- how about if we change this text in standards.texi:
> 
>   For more information about these matters,
>   see the files named COPYING.
> 
> into this text instead:
> 
>   For more information about these matters,
>   see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
> 
> This text is merely part an example (it's not a requirement), but the
> in my opinion the URL is far more likely to be useful in practice
> these days.

Agreed, but there is the theoretically-countervailing point that we
probably prefer programs to be distributed with source (and hence the
COPYING file) rather than distributed with a URL for the source.  

An equally minor nit is that URL always points to the latest version
of the GPL, while a person receiving a source distribution typically
has the choice of a small number of versions of the GPL (i.e. the
version of ther license they actually received plus any later
version).

Regards,
James.