GPL : Deriving from a GPL'ed project

[Biscuit]

Hey guys,

I'm googling for sometime but it's still not clear to me.

This began as a mod for an application but now it's advancing in a different way so I decided to present it as a fork.

When you derive a work, what goes into the info fields of the license header in the source? Like:

 * origApp
 * http://www.origsite.com
 * 
 * version
 * 1.06
 *
 * author
 * Rick Johnson
 * 
 * copyright
 * Copyright (C) 1999-2001 Rick Johnson
 *
 * license
 * This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
 * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
 * the Free Software Foundation, version 3 of the License.
 *
 * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
 * GNU General Public License for more details.
 *
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 * along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/

How should I change the author and copyright fields? Besides giving reference to the original work of the author, I also wish to list the name of the fork with its own web address.

Would it be appropriate to use the copyright info of the fork, and reference the original application as :

copyright:
Copyright (C) 2008 Fork Author

based on origApp by origAuthor
Copyright (C) 1999-2001 Rick Johnson

or use a copyright section like

copyright:
Copyright (C) 2008 Fork Author
Copyright (C) 1999-2001 Rick Johnson

[GNU-Fan]

Hello,

either way is fine, I'd prefer the latter though because it's shorter.

[Biscuit]

Btw, what about the copyright years? I would write the copyright year which was stated when the new project was derived, but what if the original copyright dates get updated during the lifetime of the fork project and invalidate the copyright dates stated in the fork's source code?

[Biscuit]

ah thanks gnu-fan. looks like a trivial question, but it was pretty hard to find an example or direct info through google.