Re: Mixing GPL and non-copyleft code in source files

["Philip McGrath" <philip@philipmcgrath.com>]

On Wed, Jan 3, 2024, at 3:32 PM, Vagrant Cascadian wrote:
> On 2024-01-03, Wojtek Kosior via wrote:
>> Before getting back to the discussion, please let me ask 1 question.
>> Assume I submit a patch series that adds some useful and needed code and
>> includes a copyright notice with a promise, like this
>>
>> ;;; Copyright © 2023 Wojtek Kosior <koszko@koszko.org>
>> ;;; Wojtek Kosior promises not to sue for violations of this file's license.
>>
>> Will this weirdness be considered minor enough to tolerate?  I made
>> sure the promise line takes below 78 chars.
>
> I am not at all a lawyer, but this seems like an entirely different
> license, and at the very least a pragmatic headache.
>

In the spirit of sticking to the concrete issue, there is precedent for GNU software accepting changes that the contributor has placed in the public domain: see in particular <https://www.gnu.org/prep/maintain/html_node/Copyright-Papers.html>. In fact, since Guix leaves copyright ownership with individual contributors, it seems like there's no way to stop contributors from also licensing their contributions under additional licenses.

I think it could make sense to include in the commit message something like, "I, Alyssa P. Hacker, dedicate my contribution in this commit to the public domain under CC0-1.0.". That would make it clear exactly what changes are covered.

Philip