Contributor License Terms

[Basilisk-Dev]

I’ve added a Contributor License to the Basilisk licensing terms.

Effective July 8, 2026, Basilisk now includes a Contributor License that applies to new contributions submitted to the official Basilisk source code repository.

The purpose of this change is straightforward. It ensures that contributions accepted into the project cannot later be withdrawn or have permission revoked. This helps prevent situations where previously accepted code must be removed because a contributor changes their mind years later. It’s a possibility that has been on my mind for some time, although fortunately it has never happened.

This change is intended solely to ensure that contributions made to Basilisk remain available to the project permanently while preserving the rights granted to everyone under the project’s existing software licenses. It does not change the Basilisk software license or anyone’s ability to use, modify, redistribute, or fork the project. You can still fork it, modify it, pee on a hard drive containing the source code, or do whatever else the license permits.

https://repo.palemoon.org/Basilisk-Dev/ ... LICENSE.md

[Moonchild]

That's a good idea, actually, for contributions that aren't necessarily covered under the normal licenses.

I'm just wondering how you want to deal with contributions that become part of Basilisk that are licensed proprietary that way under your new contributor license -- if not explicitly sublicensed, it would prevent others (including me) from pulling code changes contributed to Basilisk on their own accord and would only be able to get those changes if you personally push them up as sublicensed. i.e. pulling or cherry picking changes/commits from Basilisk would become problematic if it falls under your explicit contributor license instead of implied under the generic Open Source license applicable to the rest of the source tree. Have you thought about that? Wouldn't it be better to make the default rule for contributions to be licensed under a specific Open Source license, and only make the contributor license take effect if contributors explicitly do not license it under Open Source/permissive licenses, and that is made clear in the contribution itself, e.g. by way of a copyright notice in a new source file?

[Basilisk-Dev]

I'm just wondering how you want to deal with contributions that become part of Basilisk that are licensed proprietary that way under your new contributor license

The Contributor License is intended only to prevent contributors from later revoking Basilisk's right to use their accepted contributions. It is not intended to replace or supersede the license governing the source files themselves.

Contributions remain subject to the same software license as the files to which they are contributed (for example, the MPL 2.0). The Contributor License simply grants the Basilisk Development Team an additional irrevocable license to the contribution. It does not make contributions proprietary or restrict anyone else's rights under the applicable open source license.

I might add a sentence like

This Contributor License is in addition to, and does not replace, the license governing the file or repository to which the contribution is made. Accepted contributions remain available under the applicable software license(s).