How do I deal with authorship after a fork?

Question

I've forked the protpy package into propy3 in order to make it usable for Python 3 users. I'm not a user of that package myself and have no clue of protein computations. However, in order to make it useful and ensure it works, I ended up spending way more time on it than I originally thought.

Now people want me to add a license file. Several attempts to reach the original authors were unsuccessful, so I cannot simply align with them what they want.

The original website mentions GNU GPL v2, so I will put the forked project under GNU GPL v2 as well.

I feel like the original authors are still the authors of this package, as most of my changes are not affecting what the package does, but how it's structured / how it works / adding tests / dealing with community support. However, I do want to change some interfaces.

Now I wonder: Is it even ok to leave them in the "author" field? Should I add myself to them? Should I remove them from the author field and mention in the README that this was forked from them?

Answer 1

You have forked a GPLv2 package, and created a derivative work therefrom. You are curious about the licensing and copyright arrangements for the new work. Fortunately, neither of these are in any doubt; the original authors have made their requirements clear simply by releasing their work under the GPL.

GPLv2 s2b requires that the modified work be released under GPLv2, which apparently is what you intended to do anyway, so that's good.

Both you and the original rightsholders have a copyright interest in this modified work. You should add your copyright notice to any files you have edited, alongside the existing copyright notices. Any files you have created de novo should bear your copyright notice at the top. If in addition you want to collect this all into a LICENSE file that's up to you, but it's not required. You do need to include a copy of the GPL, if it's not already there.