@c For double-sided printing, uncomment:
@c @setchapternewpage odd
@c This date is automagically updated when you save this file:
-@set lastupdate January 15, 2007
+@set lastupdate May 23, 2007
@c %**end of header
@dircategory GNU organization
package, you should have an account there. Contact
@email{accounts@@gnu.org} if you don't have one. (You can also ask
for accounts for people who help you a large amount in working on the
-package.) @file{/gd/gnuorg/maintain.tar.gz} is a tar file containing
-all of these files in that directory which are mentioned in this file;
-it is updated daily.
+package.)
This release of the GNU Maintenance Instructions was last updated
@value{lastupdate}.
you did was copy it, not write it, then for copyright purposes you are
@emph{not} one of the contributors of @emph{this} code.
+Especially when code has been released into the public domain, authors
+sometimes fail to write a license statement in each file. In this
+case, please first be sure that all the authors of the code have
+disclaimed copyright interest. Then, when copying the new files into
+your project, add a brief note at the beginning of the files recording
+the authors, the public domain status, and anything else relevant.
+
+On the other hand, when merging some public domain code into an
+existing file covered by the GPL (or LGPL or other free software
+license), there is no reason to indicate the pieces which are public
+domain. The notice saying that the whole file is under the GPL (or
+other license) is legally sufficient.
+
+Using code that is released under a GPL-compatible free license,
+rather than being in the public domain, may require preserving
+copyright notices or other steps. Of course, you should do what is
+needed.
+
If you are maintaining an FSF-copyrighted package, please verify we
have papers for the code you are copying, @emph{before} copying it.
If you are copying from another FSF-copyrighted package, then we
for the code, you can only use it as an external library
(@pxref{External Libraries}).
+
@node Copyright Notices
@section Copyright Notices
@cindex copyright notices in program files