[R-pkg-devel] Specifying YEAR in a MIT license

[Chris Brien]

Dear list member,

I have become confused about the YEAR that should be specified for a MIT license. In the current version on CRAN (4.1-10) the YEAR is specified as 2018, this being the year that I applied a MIT license to the package.

I changed the YEAR to 2018-2019 before submitting version 4.1-21 of the package to CRAN and this generated the following NOTE:

* checking CRAN incoming feasibility ... NOTE
Maintainer: 'Chris Brien <Chris.Brien using unisa.edu.au>'

License components with restrictions and base license permitting such:
  MIT + file LICENSE
File 'LICENSE':
  YEAR: 2018-2019
  
  COPYRIGHT HOLDER: CHRIS BRIEN

I had submitted this version of the package with the YEAR as 2018 to rhub and received a similar message. So it seemed that I needed to revise the YEAR.

I had read on the web that the YEAR should cover those years in which a version had been released and that a range of years is fine, hence the change to 2018-2019.

Can anyone tell me what I need to do to have a valid YEAR specification that also fits with what CRAN requires?

My best guess is that CRAN cannot deal with a range of values for YEARS and that I should specify 2019, because the version that I am submitting was generated in 2019. However, I want to be sure before resubmitting.

Thanks in advance for any help,

Cheers, 

  Chris