I am just echoing this back to you expanded a bit to make sure I
understood:

Annotations are used in the form @interface or @Retention. These are
annotations, a feature of JDK 1.5+. You can use them to add metadata
to your programs useful to various utilities that process the text,
e.g. for persistent object store implementations. They can also be
used for inserting boiler plate in programs. You use them as you would
the attribute static, declaring a class, variable or method to be
marked with a given annotation.

These @annotations not JavaDoc tags! They are part of the program
proper.

@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME) means the following annotation
should be retained in the class files.

@Target(ElementType.METHOD) means the following annotation only
applies to methods in the class, not the whole class.

@Documents means the following annotation should show up in the
JavaDoc


// this code lives is a file called CopyrightCanadianMindproducts.java

package com.mindprod.common15;

import java.lang.annotation.*;

@Documented
@Retention( RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME )
@interface CopyrightCanadianMindProducts
{
  String defaultCopyright =
  "copyright (c) 1998-2005 Roedy Green, "
  + "Canadian Mind Products, http://mindprod.com";

  String value() default defaultCopyright;
}

Now that you have defined it, you can annotate any class with it,
which embeds the copyright notice in the class file, with otherwise
changing the class file. Here is how you use it:

// @CopyrightCanadianMindProducts now behaves like other modifiers
// such as public or static.  It can be used to tag a class,
// embedding the copyright notice, but otherwise not changing the
class.
@CopyrightCanadianMindProducts public class MyClass1{ ... }

// -------------------------------------------------------------------

// Or I can tag a class with a slightly different copyright notice,
// but still using the CopyrightCanadianMindProducts tag name.
// I could also use this technique to ensure the copyright notice
// wording is in the source text as well.
@CopyrightCanadianMindProducts
 {   // note { not (
 "copyright (c) 2005 Roedy Green, "
 + "Canadian Mind Products, http://mindprod.com"
 }
public class MyClass2{ ... }

// -------------------------------------------------------------------

// Or I can be explicit that I am using the default
@CopyrightCanadianMindProducts
 {
 CopyrightCanadianMindProducts.defaultCopyright
 }
public class MyClass3{ ... }

for more info see:

J:\Program Files\java\jdk1.5.0_04\docs\guide\language\annotations.html