1 files changed, 21 insertions, 3 deletions

diff --git a/admin/notes/years b/admin/notes/years
index 453712e4c02..155ccd6f065 100644
--- a/admin/notes/years
+++ b/admin/notes/years
@@ -1,11 +1,29 @@
+How to Maintain Copyright Years for GNU Emacs
 
 
-  THIS DOCUMENT IS UNDER REVIEW.
+"Our lawyer says it is ok if we add, to each file that has been in Emacs
+ since Emacs 21 came out in 2001, all the subsequent years.  We don't
+ need to check whether *that file* was changed in those years.
+ It's sufficient that *Emacs* was changed in those years (and it was!).
 
-  DO NOT FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS -- THEY ARE NOT CORRECT.
+ For those files that have been added since then, we should add
+ the year it was added to Emacs, and all subsequent years."
 
+ --RMS, 2005-07-13
 
-How to Maintain Copyright Years for GNU Emacs
+
+For the refcards under etc/, it's ok to simply use the latest year
+(typically in a `\def\year{YEAR}' expression) for the rendered copyright
+notice, while maintaining the full list of years in the copyright notice
+in the comments.
+
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+Following is the policy that we tried to write down one time (mid 2005).
+Although it is incorrect, we keep it around to remind us how complicated
+things used to be (and may become in the future).
 
 
 Principle: Individual files need to have the year of the release