Since Underscores will undoubtedly be used as the base for many derivative works, it is especially important to include the GNU-recommended copyright/license attribution to style.css
:
Whichever license you plan to use, the process involves adding two elements to each source file of your program: a copyright notice (such as “Copyright 1999 Terry Jones”), and a statement of copying permission, saying that the program is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (or the Lesser GPL).
The copyright notice should include the year in which you finished preparing the release (so if you finished it in 1998 but didn't post it until 1999, use 1998). You should add the proper year for each release; for example, “Copyright 1998, 1999 Terry Jones” if some versions were finished in 1998 and some were finished in 1999. If several people helped write the code, use all their names.
For software with several releases over multiple years, it's okay to use a range (“2008-2010”) instead of listing individual years (“2008, 2009, 2010”) if and only if every year in the range, inclusive, really is a “copyrightable” year that would be listed individually; and you make an explicit statement in your documentation about this usage.
So, where this statement is in style.css
:
This theme, like WordPress, is licensed under the GPL.
Use it to make something cool, have fun, and share what you've learned with others.
...I would recommend adding something like:
_s ("Underscores") WordPress Theme, Copyright 2012 Automattic, Inc.
This theme, like WordPress, is licensed under the GPL.
Use it to make something cool, have fun, and share what you've learned with others.
This would be especially helpful for the Theme Review Team, as it would facilitate enforcement of proper copyright/license attribution for derivative works. (We're already starting to see _s-derivative Themes submitted.)