> There are a few lines in Apache 2 itself which are normative and make reference to obligations regarding notices attached directly to source files. Most notab

> There are a few lines in Apache 2 itself which are normative and make reference to obligations regarding notices attached directly to source files. Most notably, see section 4.a[1]: > > You must cause any modified files to carry prominent notices stating that You changed the files; [...] If you think that’s in any way relevant, please reread it. It’s nothing to do with what I’ll call a first-party copyright notice. Yes, it’s about stapling a notice, but if anything that strengthens my argument, because that’s all you can find, because that’s all there is. (Incidentally, very few people ever comply with that term, and the specific nature of it has aged badly so that it’s often not even clear in what situations you even need such notice—just another place in which these old licenses really need replacing.) I wish BlueOak-1.0.0 <https://blueoakcouncil.org/license/1.0.0 https://blueoakcouncil.org/license/1.0.0> was more popular. Good work has gone into it. https://writing.kemitchell.com/2020/12/27/War-on-License-Notices.html https://writing.kemitchell.com/2020/12/27/War-on-License-Not... is good related reading, from a tech lawyer, who has been involved in a lot of this good progressive stuff. Aspects like: do these notices even actually do anything, and what, and when; and how much is direct inclusion even valuable? It doesn’t talk about including notices in individual files, but you can readily apply some of the principles discussed. People are regularly making things much harder than they need to be, for reasons that boil down to superstition, and frequently with as much accuracy as superstition often has. —⁂— > I will stress again that I am not a legal professional, I don't study law, and at best I have spoken to people who do irregularly. However, I haven't found anyone that would disagree that it is a good idea to provide a full-fat copyright notice when possible. All else the same, it's just good hygiene at a cost of a kilobyte or so per file. I’d be curious to know kemitchell’s opinion on this. For my part, I baulk at calling such verbose notices “good hygiene”.