Would a simple attribution satisfy the BSD license's requirements for reuse or do I need to copy the whole copyright notice?

Question

Would something like This program uses code written by Nathan2055 satisfy the requirements for the BSD license, or do I need to copy out the whole notice? I know it asks that the notice is kept intact, but if I'm only using one file of code it's a waste to have to copy the entire license into the main copyright file.

Answer 1

You would probably have to say something to the effect of "This program uses code written by Nathan2055, which is licensed under the BSD license" and provide a link to the version of the license. However, to be safe, you're probably better off just putting the entire license in there. You don't want to get into any legal trouble over the exclusion of a simple text document.