Copyright notices: name the Postulo contributors as the holder, not one person #346

New issue

Closed

opened 2026-10-01 09:49:03 +00:00 by tiagoagueda · 0 comments

tiagoagueda commented

2026-10-01 09:49:03 +00:00

Owner

Requested by the maintainer on 2026-10-01.

Every copyright notice in the repository names one person, Tiago Agueda. The project takes contributions, and its translation catalogues already say Last-Translator: Postulo contributors; the notices should say the same thing: Copyright (C) 2026 Postulo contributors.

Where the wording is

README.md:243 (Licence): Copyright (C) 2026 Tiago Agueda. [AGPL-3.0-or-later](LICENSE).
THIRD-PARTY.md:3: Postulo is Copyright (C) 2026 Tiago Agueda and is licensed under ...
TRADEMARKS.md:3: Postulo's **code** is Copyright (C) 2026 Tiago Agueda, ...
pyproject.toml:8: authors = [{ name = "Tiago Agueda" }], which becomes the package's Author field.
tests/test_trademarks.py:63-66 asserts the exact string Copyright (C) 2026 Tiago Agueda in THIRD-PARTY.md, TRADEMARKS.md and README.md, so the three files and the test change together.
The wiki, Writing-a-plugin.md:1485: the catalogue example carries "maintainer": "Tiago Agueda". That field names who maintains a plugin, not who holds its copyright; decide whether the example should name a person at all, or the project.

Not this: SECURITY.md and FUNDING.md name the maintainer as the person to write to and the person a donation goes to. Those are true statements about a person and stay. The third-party notices (basecoat, flag-icons, zxcvbn, Lucide) name their own holders and stay.

What to decide while changing it

The wording. Copyright (C) 2026 Postulo contributors is the proposal. Keep the first year; add a range only if the project wants one.
What makes it true. A notice does not move anybody's copyright: each contributor holds what they wrote. CONTRIBUTING.md says nothing today about the terms a contribution comes in under. Add the sentence that makes the collective notice accurate: contributions are licensed under AGPL-3.0-or-later, contributors keep their copyright, and the notice names them together. Say where the list of contributors is (the git history, or an AUTHORS file if one is wanted).
The name and logo. TRADEMARKS.md reserves the name and the logo and does not say whose they are. This issue is about the copyright line only; if the marks should also move from a person to the project, that is its own decision and its own issue.
Package metadata. authors in pyproject.toml can be Postulo contributors too, with maintainers naming who answers for a release if that is wanted.

Done when

The three notices read Copyright (C) 2026 Postulo contributors, and tests/test_trademarks.py asserts the new wording and refuses the old one.
CONTRIBUTING.md states the terms of a contribution and who the notice refers to.
pyproject.toml and the wiki's catalogue example say what was decided.
The same change is made in the plugin repositories that name a holder or an author: postulo/postulo-helloworld, postulo/postulo-apprise, postulo/postulo-dav, postulo/postulo-imap, postulo/postulo-mcp and postulo/postulo-paperless each have their own issue. postulo-chromium, postulo-firefox, postulo-thunderbird and postulo-templates name nobody today.

Requested by the maintainer on 2026-10-01. Every copyright notice in the repository names one person, Tiago Agueda. The project takes contributions, and its translation catalogues already say `Last-Translator: Postulo contributors`; the notices should say the same thing: **Copyright (C) 2026 Postulo contributors**. ## Where the wording is - `README.md:243` (*Licence*): `Copyright (C) 2026 Tiago Agueda. [AGPL-3.0-or-later](LICENSE).` - `THIRD-PARTY.md:3`: `Postulo is Copyright (C) 2026 Tiago Agueda and is licensed under ...` - `TRADEMARKS.md:3`: `Postulo's **code** is Copyright (C) 2026 Tiago Agueda, ...` - `pyproject.toml:8`: `authors = [{ name = "Tiago Agueda" }]`, which becomes the package's `Author` field. - `tests/test_trademarks.py:63-66` asserts the exact string `Copyright (C) 2026 Tiago Agueda` in `THIRD-PARTY.md`, `TRADEMARKS.md` and `README.md`, so the three files and the test change together. - The wiki, `Writing-a-plugin.md:1485`: the catalogue example carries `"maintainer": "Tiago Agueda"`. That field names who maintains a plugin, not who holds its copyright; decide whether the example should name a person at all, or the project. Not this: `SECURITY.md` and `FUNDING.md` name the maintainer as the person to write to and the person a donation goes to. Those are true statements about a person and stay. The third-party notices (`basecoat`, flag-icons, zxcvbn, Lucide) name their own holders and stay. ## What to decide while changing it - **The wording.** `Copyright (C) 2026 Postulo contributors` is the proposal. Keep the first year; add a range only if the project wants one. - **What makes it true.** A notice does not move anybody's copyright: each contributor holds what they wrote. `CONTRIBUTING.md` says nothing today about the terms a contribution comes in under. Add the sentence that makes the collective notice accurate: contributions are licensed under AGPL-3.0-or-later, contributors keep their copyright, and the notice names them together. Say where the list of contributors is (the git history, or an `AUTHORS` file if one is wanted). - **The name and logo.** `TRADEMARKS.md` reserves the name and the logo and does not say whose they are. This issue is about the copyright line only; if the marks should also move from a person to the project, that is its own decision and its own issue. - **Package metadata.** `authors` in `pyproject.toml` can be `Postulo contributors` too, with `maintainers` naming who answers for a release if that is wanted. ## Done when - The three notices read `Copyright (C) 2026 Postulo contributors`, and `tests/test_trademarks.py` asserts the new wording and refuses the old one. - `CONTRIBUTING.md` states the terms of a contribution and who the notice refers to. - `pyproject.toml` and the wiki's catalogue example say what was decided. - The same change is made in the plugin repositories that name a holder or an author: postulo/postulo-helloworld, postulo/postulo-apprise, postulo/postulo-dav, postulo/postulo-imap, postulo/postulo-mcp and postulo/postulo-paperless each have their own issue. postulo-chromium, postulo-firefox, postulo-thunderbird and postulo-templates name nobody today.

tiagoagueda added this to the 0.5.0 milestone

2026-10-01 09:49:03 +00:00

tiagoagueda added the

documentation

tier

labels

2026-10-01 09:49:03 +00:00

tiagoagueda referenced this issue from Postulo/postulo-helloworld

2026-10-01 09:49:04 +00:00

Copyright notices: name the Postulo contributors as the holder, not one person #5

tiagoagueda referenced this issue from Postulo/postulo-apprise

2026-10-01 09:49:04 +00:00