How to apply the GPL without violating it

[Thomas Charron]

On 6/7/07, Arnoud Engelfriet <arnoud at engelfriet.net> wrote:
> By request I'm forwarding this message from
> Gennaro Prota <gennaro.prota at yahoo.com>
> Hi guys,
> I've a hopefully simple question for you all: what is the *minimal*
> required text for applying the GNU GPL to a given work? I'm a bit
> So far so good. But the non-normative part ("How to Apply These Terms
> to Your New Programs"), complicates things a bit:
>   To do so, attach the following notices [note the plural!]
>   to the program.
>   It is safest to attach them to the start of each source file
>   to most effectively convey the exclusion of warranty;
>   [so, this is safest, but not required, right?]
> In practice my question boils down to this: if my source files stick
> to the following text:
>    Copyright year(s) <my name>
>    Licensed under the GNU General Public License Version 2
> is that enough? Is the second sentence to be considered a "pointer to
> the full notice"? If that is of any help, the text I'm currently using
> can be seen here:

  What you intend to do is perfectly ok.  Even NO license being
specified at all could still be used, but is not advised.  Just
because something doesn't have a license inline doesn't mean it
doesn't belong to someone else and must be licensed.  You may want to
also include the URL of the GPL at
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html

-- 
-- Thomas