COPYING: Correct start date for “The Bitcoin Core developers” copyright line #34564

1. 
   melvincarvalho commented at 6:49 pm on February 11, 2026: none

   Summary

   Corrects 2009 → 2014 for “The Bitcoin Core developers” in the COPYING file, reflecting when that project name came into use.

   Closes #34563

   Change

   Before:

   0Copyright (c) 2009-2026 The Bitcoin Core developers
   1Copyright (c) 2009-2026 Bitcoin Developers
   

   After:

   0Copyright (c) 2014-2026 The Bitcoin Core developers
   1Copyright (c) 2009-2026 Bitcoin Developers
   

   Rationale

   The git history shows:

   • Satoshi replaced his own name with “Bitcoin Developers” in his final v0.3.19 release (Dec 2010, fc73ad644f0b)
   • The project was known as “Bitcoin” with “Bitcoin Developers” until the v0.9.0 rebrand to “Bitcoin Core” (March 2014; see #3203, #3408)
   • In 2015, 3b00e7c23164 replaced “Bitcoin Developers” with “The Bitcoin Core developers” and backdated it to 2009
   • #11318 (gmaxwell, 2017) partially addressed this by restoring “Bitcoin Developers” as a second line — sipa identified 3b00e7c as having introduced the naming error. However, the start date was not corrected

   This is a single-number fix consistent with the project’s preference for accurate copyright notices, as demonstrated by #11318. No change to the license text itself.

   This change reflects historical naming, not contributor scope — early contributors’ work is fully covered under “Bitcoin Developers.”

2. COPYING: Correct start date for The Bitcoin Core developers 74d1d1ceb8
3. 
   DrahtBot commented at 6:49 pm on February 11, 2026: contributor

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4. 
   melvincarvalho commented at 10:00 am on February 13, 2026: none

   This completes the correction from #11318, where sipa identified commit 3b00e7c as a mistake (comment). The current start date originates from that same commit.
5. 
   maflcko commented at 10:11 am on February 13, 2026: member

   idk, I don’t see the goal here, or the issue/problem that this is solving, as mentioned in the linked issue already. Also, it seems a bit sketchy that an external contributor submits this change. As mentioned in the issue, there are devs who contributed before and after 2015, so this seems more like something for them to decide. And I think they have already decided, so it seems odd that an external third party submits a change on behalf of them.

   it may be better to close this for now.

Contributors
melvincarvalho DrahtBot maflcko