Correctly Applying an Open Source License

Posted by Johannes Rudolph on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by Johannes Rudolph
Published on 2010-03-18T09:13:56Z Indexed on 2010/03/18 9:31 UTC
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open-source

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licensing

My question consists of multiple points that are inherently related, I apologize for that. I tried splitting it up a little more, but I would keep repeating myself.

What exactly is required to apply an open source license to a code base that is my Intellectual Property?
A lot of Open Source projects include a full copy of the license somewhere in a root directory but do also have some sort of file header including a license description, disclaimer and a copyright notice. Is that really necessary or does it depend on the license type?
If someone else contributes changes to this file, does he need to be named in the copyright notice too?

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