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

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:

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

After:

Copyright (c) 2014-2026 The Bitcoin Core developers
Copyright (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."

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This completes the correction from #11318, where sipa identified commit 3b00e7c as a mistake (comment). The current start date originates from that same commit.

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.

Closing for now due to inactivity

Thanks for taking a look, and I respect the decision to close.

I'd like to briefly clarify the motivation in case reconsideration is possible. The change is solely about aligning the license header with the project’s naming history. The current text attributes copyright to "The Bitcoin Core developers" beginning in 2009, but the "Bitcoin Core" name was adopted later.

The separate "Bitcoin Developers" line already covers 2009 onward, including contributors who were active both before and after the rename. Adjusting the year on the "Bitcoin Core developers" line would therefore correct the timeline without altering attribution scope.

If my understanding of the naming timeline is incorrect, I'm happy to be corrected. The goal is simply to ensure the header reflects the historical record as accurately as possible.

Was this LLM generated?

I drafted it. The reasoning and motivation are mine. I sometimes use LLMs to refine my wording.

The PR is simply correcting one number, changing "2009" to "2014", to reflect historical accuracy, and I wanted to ensure correctness.