Credits used to be at the start of the movie. George Lucas got into hot water for refusing to include any at the beginning of “Star Wars”.

Including a copyright notice? I'm most familiar with post-1960s films which had both, but left "small print" things like that to the very end.

Wikipedia suggests opening credits were always incomplete credit-wise - "Films generally had opening credits only, which consisted of just major cast and crew, although sometimes the names of the cast and the characters they played would be shown at the end. " - but doesn't talk about copyright there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closing_credits

He is referring to the restrictions of a union / syndicate: Directors Guild of America.

It's a group of people that you pay as a Director and that sets the guidelines how work should be done.

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/George_Lucas#:~:text=The%20....

I'm aware that there used to be more credits - especially the "giving credit to the people involved" sort - up front.

I don't have a specific recollection of if they included all the "legalese" sort of non-credits like these copyright notices.

Afaik old films had everything at the beginning then trailers at the end: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9Xt1T_LfdY

Older films tended to show the copyright date during the opening credits, on the title card.

I would have agreed with you if your post was not 20 minutes old, get with the times.