Questions tagged [contributor-agreements]
For questions about the legal documents covering contributions from outside a project's core team.
70
questions
3
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1
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113
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License like LGPL-3.0, but owner can sell source to 3rd party freely and contributors can't say no or revoke code
TL;DR:
Basically "Hey, look, I felt your soft A lacked this so I made this Soft B. You can buy it and add it or do whatever you want with it but don't be a dick and give credit where it's due. ...
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4
votes
1
answer
373
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Is a CLA necessary?
PDF4QT is released under LGPL3+.
If you open a PR, the maintainer asks you to sign a CLA.
Is this necessary?
My code must be released under LGPL3+ as well, otherwise I'll fail to fulfill the license ...
- 307
2
votes
0
answers
65
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Could a CLA be avoided by simply specifying in the license a particular owner who may grant closed source use? [duplicate]
One of the main purposes of a CLA (contributor license agreement), as I understand it, is to allow some owner of the software to have full rights to relicense the code if desired. This is rather ...
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3
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1
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118
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License to accept contributions without losing the rights on the application
English is not my native language so all the subtleties of licensing law are lost on me. I can't find what I'm looking for.
The initial problem:
I have created an association and its website which ...
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0
votes
1
answer
80
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How to open source a project developed at several companies by a single author
I've been the only author (or at least the author of 99.9% of code) on a project that initially started as a masters research project at a research organisation. After completing my studies I was ...
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2
votes
2
answers
236
views
How to require contributor to agree BEFORE creating a pull request?
Does anyone have a solution to the problem below?
Yes, I can reject at review time, but I'd rather have that taken care of prior to reviewing the PR.
Do we know if github will support yml for pull ...
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4
votes
0
answers
65
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Does a BSD-3 repository own Pull Requests?
I submit a large PR to repository X. Later, I close the PR and make my own repository that uses some of X's code, and give X due attribution in the NOTICE file and function docstrings. At time of ...
-2
votes
1
answer
183
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AGPL, with Apache-2.0 option for non-commercial use
I want to license a project that allows anyone to license it under AGPL-3.0, but with the option to license it under Apache-2.0 for non-commercial use only. Are there any hidden pitfalls I may have ...
3
votes
1
answer
121
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How can I handle minors as contributors?
Ok, firstly, to clarify when I say minor, I mean someone under the age of majority in the US. In this case his father reached out to me regarding a sort of mentor/apprenticeship, so I know I have his ...
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22
votes
1
answer
7k
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How to avoid being AWSed?
Elastic built the tool, AWS redistributed it and is dominating the market. Elastic is probably going to struggle and slowly die because they are bad at business. However, they built a great tool and ...
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0
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145
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Can a CLA be agreed to implicitly, like a license?
For license on software, users who download the software must abide by the license, usually in something like a LICENSE file. I don't need to ask them to fax me a signed document or anything.
For CLAs,...
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3
votes
1
answer
164
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Can a LGPL project use contributed code after the original contributor withdrew it and was banned from the project?
"Project A" is released under LGPL ver 2.1 or, at user's discretion, above. This project is part of a bigger platform.
"Contributor A" submitted a highly-popular merge request to ...
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5
votes
1
answer
137
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Copyright Transfer by License?
I am conflicted about the licensing for one of my projects. My goals for the license are very similar to the GPL, with one notable exception. I want to remain the sole copyright owner - to keep ...
- 151
10
votes
2
answers
2k
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Doesn't GPL with CLA defeat the point?
I see that a lot of proprietary projects which make their source available operate with dual licensing model, with the open source version being licensed under GPL v3 and proprietary product being, ...
- 229
3
votes
1
answer
203
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Do software patches ever inherit the license of the patched project?
This is a follow up question to an earlier question which included a misunderstanding about the nature of the MIT/X license, and has been clarified there.
Consider the software project dwm by Suckless....
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2
votes
2
answers
688
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How are software patches licensed?
Consider the software project dwm by Suckless. The project is clearly licensed under the MIT/X Consortium License, which includes the clause
The above copyright notice and this permission notice ...
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2
votes
2
answers
168
views
Can code licensed under AGPL also be (re)licensed under LGPL by its contributor?
I have a puzzling question:
Somebody contributed to a AGPL licensed project (he is not the owner). Now this code could also be applied to a different project licensed under LGPL. Could the author of ...
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4
votes
2
answers
284
views
Is copyright of a contribution to a BSD 2-clause project automatically assigned to the project's copyright owner?
The 2-clause BSD licence includes the clause:
Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
What implications does this ...
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4
votes
1
answer
2k
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Is "Signed-off-by" really needed for a GitHub hosted project?
Suppose my GitHub project requires DCO.
In case of DCO, for a "proof" of origin it's usually enough to add a commit message that includes Signed-off-by line.
But in case of GitHub it's very ...
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17
votes
6
answers
2k
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Contributing as a company
At my employer we use open source software in our products. Eventually it came to the point that someone in the company fixed an issue in an oss library (a performance thing, not a big deal but ...
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4
votes
1
answer
539
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Entering into a Contributor License Agreement on behalf of a non-registered open-source organisation
I own a GitHub organization in which I licensed the projects under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Public License to which I expect contributions from other contributors. ...
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1
vote
1
answer
145
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Question about the word "irrevocable" in a Contributor License Agreement
In the CLA of the Linux Foundation, under section 2 there was the following:
... You hereby grant to the Foundation and to recipients of software distributed by the Foundation a perpetua
l, ...
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4
votes
1
answer
171
views
Is it appropriate to have an optional Contributor License Agreement?
I'm a developer who makes open-source software, typically libraries and websites.
My libraries are under the Apache 2.0 license, while websites / applications are under the GPL/AGPL 3 license.
I've ...
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14
votes
3
answers
2k
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Is it possible for Linux developers to retroactively "pull their code" from Linux?
Linux now has a Code of Conduct. In the resulting backlash some people have claimed that developers can "flip a kill switch" or "pull their code" from Linux. They seem to mean that developers can ...
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4
votes
1
answer
389
views
Contributor license agreement between individuals not an entity?
I have a relatively young private GitHub repo with 5-6 people working on it together. My understanding of a contributor agreement is that I can use this to state that:
Users have access to the ...
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8
votes
1
answer
1k
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CLA as an exception to the GPL
If it is true that GPL exceptions can be made to apply to some individuals and not others, could the author of an open source program avoid the hassle of asking contributors to sign a Contributor ...
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0
votes
1
answer
267
views
How accept contributions from people who don't know what a Pull Request is?
Someone sent me [ a translation to a new language ] of the open source software I'm developing. He attached the translation messages file to a private message in the discussion forum I've setup for ...
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4
votes
1
answer
211
views
Does the DCO require a cryptographic signature?
The Developer Certificate of Origin mentions a signature:
I understand and agree that this project and the contribution are public and that a record of the contribution (including all personal ...
- 1,970
0
votes
2
answers
141
views
How strictly should I enforce DCO-signing for complete legal protection?
The Developer Certificate of Origin protects the codebase from legal threat by requiring that each commit is signed, indicating that the contributor is authorised to make and license the commit (for ...
- 1,970
0
votes
3
answers
244
views
Must I retro-actively DCO-sign my sole author commits for a work project?
I am currently the sole author of a codebase, created for my employer, released under AGPL 3 or later. Moving forward, I want to require that contributions are signed, following the Developer ...
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3
votes
1
answer
63
views
How can I anticipate a smooth transition to CC BY 5.0?
Let's say I create a CC BY 4.0 work today, and others contribute to it under the same license. Some individual elements will have multiple authors, some will have single authors. Some might include CC ...
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1
vote
1
answer
60
views
How do I require users to license future submissions on sign-up?
Users will submit content to my website. I want them to license that content under CC BY 4.0 when they do, otherwise they should not submit it. Thus, all user-submitted content will be released under ...
- 1,970
4
votes
2
answers
559
views
What additional benefits does the DCO provide?
If my project has a lax license (like Expat/MIT), I can enforce "inbound=outbound" by requiring that contributors sign off their commits in order to acknowledge the Developer Certificate of Origin.
I'...
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5
votes
1
answer
591
views
Moving project from AGPL to Apache v2 / MIT license
The question in a nutshell
Hi! Together with a team of brilliant engineers we've been building a software project (http://luna-lang.org) for the last two years and now we want to release everything ...
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3
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Can I change the copyright license, with this text in the CLA?
If I include this in the Contributor License Agreement (CLA) for an open source project I'm doing:
(the following is from Apache's individual CLA)
Grant of Copyright License. Subject to the terms ...
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9
votes
1
answer
441
views
Copyright assignments in Germany
When contributing to some of their projects, the FSF requires you to assign the copyright to your work to the FSF. As I'm German, I'm interested in whether this is compatible with German law.
German ...
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3
votes
1
answer
93
views
Does a Contributor License Agreement prevent future employment with that company?
While job searching I thought it'd be nice to get a leg up on the hiring process for this particular company by contributing to the their open source projects.
Signing a CLA makes sense, however I ...
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14
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Projects which require copyright assignment from contributors?
I read the following in ØMQ - The Guide (in Chapter 6, in the section Licensing and Ownership):
All patches are owned by their authors. There SHALL NOT be any copyright assignment process.
Here we ...
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13
votes
1
answer
426
views
Can I resubmit someone else's pull request if he does not sign CLA?
Someone helped with progress upstream at an open source project I really rely on. He basically did what I was not capable of and now I am waiting for his pull request to be merged and included in ...
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7
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Benefits of a CLA when using Apache 2.0 License
I understand that there are benefits to CLA for some licenses (as well as drawbacks and tradeoffs), however the Apache 2.0 License already has section 5 stating the following:
Submission of ...
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2
votes
1
answer
270
views
Does inbound=outbound apply to GPL-family without a CLA?
The traditional expectation for contributions to a free software project are "inbound=outbound" [1] [2]. That is, if the project is under license X, contributions are made under license X.
Does this ...
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5
votes
1
answer
563
views
Does inbound=outbound apply to Apache 2.0 without a CLA?
The traditional expectation for contributions to a free software project are "inbound=outbound" [1] [2]. That is, if the project is under license X, contributions are made under license X.
Does this ...
- 1,970
7
votes
1
answer
2k
views
What does "and contributors" in the copyright byline imply?
I have read that a simple way to manage contributions was to add "and contributors" to the copyright byline:
Foo project
Copyright 2017 J. Hacker and contributors
Shared under the Libre ...
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2
votes
1
answer
297
views
Is there a standard way to declare inbound=outbound?
The traditional expectation for contributions to a free software project are "inbound=outbound" [1] [2]. That is, if the project is under license X, contributions are made under license X.
However, I'...
- 1,970
2
votes
0
answers
408
views
Does a CLA have to contain the complete name and mailing address of the person that signs it? Isn't having the contributor's GitHub username enough?
https://www.clahub.com/pages/why_cla (mirror) claims that:
A CLA should also contain personal information about the person that signs it, such as a complete name and mailing address.
Is it true ...
9
votes
3
answers
4k
views
How to complete CLA on GitHub
I have submitted a pull request on GitHub and the organization asked me to sign the CLA before they can merge the pull request, who currently has the red label 'cla-required'.
How can I do this? ...
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20
votes
5
answers
3k
views
How to prevent contributors from claiming copyright on my LGPL-released software?
I have published the first version of my software on my company's git repo and some other developers outside of our company have shown interest in contributing to our work. We are releasing our ...
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17
votes
2
answers
18k
views
How to apply MIT license in the GitHub repo for fully free project?
I have a public repository for an open source project on GitHub. It's main goal is to
make this code available to anybody (including myself) who may what to use it, for free, for all the time, with ...
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5
votes
1
answer
326
views
Can Mozilla Public License be used as a contributor license agreement?
MPL reads (emphasis mine):
1.7. “Larger Work”
means a work that combines Covered Software with other material, in a separate file or files, that is not Covered Software.
3.3. Distribution of a Larger ...
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8
votes
1
answer
601
views
Is a CLA only useful for copyleft licensed?
Is it useful to have a CLA when you e.g. use an MIT license for your project?
I am just asking this, because when you use the MIT license you are already granted to sublicense it, so is a CLA ...
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