Specifying licenses that are not included with guix

Specifying licenses that are not included with guix

[nils]

Hello,

I'm currently packaging vim plugins. This is mostly going well, but I've hit some license-related issues.

1. What do I do if a package specifies a license that is not included in guix/licenses.scm ? For example, vim-sandwich uses the NYSL license [1] (between public-domain and WTFPL), coc.nvim is the originator of the "Anti 996" License [2] (modified version of MIT / expat).

2. What do I do if a package specifies no license at all? For example see https://github.com/coderifous/textobj-word-column.vim/issues/11


[1] https://github.com/machakann/vim-sandwich/blob/c5a2cc438ce6ea2005c556dc833732aa53cae21a/doc/sandwich.txt#L6-L8
[2] https://github.com/neoclide/coc.nvim/blob/3014125e4ab7d35e08bbcde946dca4812b84f105/LICENSE.md

Re: Specifying licenses that are not included with guix

[Simon Tournier]

Hi,

On sam., 13 mai 2023 at 11:36, nils@promisedlandt.de wrote:

> 1. What do I do if a package specifies a license that is not included
> in guix/licenses.scm ? For example, vim-sandwich uses the NYSL license
> [1] (between public-domain and WTFPL), coc.nvim is the originator of
> the "Anti 996" License [2] (modified version of MIT / expat).

Well, [1] is only in Japanese and the English version is unofficial.

From [2], I read:

    "Anti 996" License Version 1.0 (Draft)

what a very weird idea to write their own license – “weird“ to put it
mildly.  And I do not understand what means “Draft” here.

That said, these licenses are very exotic and they must be inspected by
lawyers to point if they respect Free Software principles.

It seems best to pick one of the licenses listed here:

    https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html

And in all, I am afraid to say it will be hard to include such package.
Instead, you should consider to maintain them in a separated channel.

    https://guix.gnu.org/manual/devel/en/guix.html#Channels

> [1] https://github.com/machakann/vim-sandwich/blob/c5a2cc438ce6ea2005c556dc833732aa53cae21a/doc/sandwich.txt#L6-L8
> [2] > https://github.com/neoclide/coc.nvim/blob/3014125e4ab7d35e08bbcde946dca4812b84f105/LICENSE.md


> 2. What do I do if a package specifies no license at all? For example
> see https://github.com/coderifous/textobj-word-column.vim/issues/11 

Without license, it cannot be included.


Cheers,
simon

Re: Specifying licenses that are not included with guix

[nils]

> Simon Tournier <zimon.toutoune@gmail.com> hat am 15.05.2023 14:05 CEST geschrieben:
> 
>  
> On sam., 13 mai 2023 at 11:36, nils@promisedlandt.de wrote:
> 
> > 1. What do I do if a package specifies a license that is not included
> > in guix/licenses.scm ?
> 
> And in all, I am afraid to say it will be hard to include such package.
> 
> > 2. What do I do if a package specifies no license at all?
> 
> Without license, it cannot be included.

Thank you for the answers. 
In that case, I will keep the problematic plugins in my own channel, and will only try to upstream the other plugins.