20
votes
Who owns contributed code?
You own any code that you write.
When you contribute to projects you aren't handing over your copyright (ownership), you're giving them a license to your work. It's usually inferred to be the same ...
- 461
18
votes
What exactly is a pull request?
The term "pull request" comes from git, where the git pull command is used to merge a different repository into your local one. So if someone else has a copy of your git repository, and makes changes ...
- 3,963
15
votes
Accepted
Who is responsible on resolving conflicts on different PRs?
That's a tricky question for the maintainers / core devs to answer and there cannot be "the one correct answer" as it depends highly on how that particular community works and how the people talk to ...
- 8,042
14
votes
Accepted
What should I do if maintainers are unresponsive/how can I become a maintainer?
The primary way to contribute is by pull requests, just like you said. If your pull requests aren't accepted and you do not get any comments the project might as well be abandoned.
In this case I ...
- 441
14
votes
Accepted
Do Contributors Own Copyright After Sending Contributions?
The common understanding is to consider that contributions are made under the same license as the project these are contributed to (unless stated otherwise).
On GitHub, this is made explicit in the ...
- 13.8k
13
votes
Accepted
Can I resubmit someone else's pull request if he does not sign CLA?
This depends in part on what the CLA requires, but it may be possible.
Do you have the ability to reuse the submission at all?
In general, it's understood that contributions to an open source ...
- 30.8k
12
votes
When folks send me pull-requests on GitHub, what are their copyright/licensing terms by default?
Update, based on new Terms of Service:
If a GitHub repository specifies a license, that's the default license for contributions.
Here's Section D.6 from GitHub's current Terms of Service:
6. ...
- 385
11
votes
What exactly is a pull request?
If you have distributed version control systems, every developer has a copy of the full repository. If you change something to the software, you commit your changes to your local repository. If ...
- 10.8k
11
votes
Accepted
When folks send me pull-requests on GitHub, what are their copyright/licensing terms by default?
Some GPL projects require explicit copyright assignment, not merely licensing, of contributions. Copyright assignment is a bigger deal that licensing, and perhaps can't be arranged by an Apache style '...
- 4,109
8
votes
What exactly is a pull request?
A pull request is related to version control systems. You may have several sets of users:
Administrators/Owners
Contributors
Testers
You want each of these people to be able to do different things:
...
- 8,650
7
votes
Accepted
How can I know how much of a change to make in each of my pull requests?
Pull requests should be easy to review and integrate. Big pull requests can be easy if done properly, and small pull requests can be extremely tricky.
If your change is going to be big, or if it has ...
- 199
6
votes
Accepted
Can I use an unmerged pull request to an Apache 2.0 project in my proprietary fork?
Not only do GitHub's terms of service codify that the submission would be covered under the Apache 2 license, so too does the Apache 2 license itself:
"Contribution" shall mean any work of ...
- 30.8k
5
votes
Pull request ownership, who owns the code committed?
If all the code is yours, then you can do anything that you would like with it. You can change the license, or even remove the license altogether. You don't have to keep a version licensed under the ...
- 6,209
5
votes
When folks send me pull-requests on GitHub, what are their copyright/licensing terms by default?
In case of doubt, you should state clearly that you only accept contributions under GPLv3 (or whatever license you select), and that the constributor must make sure they are allowed to contribute ...
- 4,969
5
votes
What should I do if maintainers are unresponsive/how can I become a maintainer?
Although @jgauffin is giving you good general guidelines, I would add that it is important not to jump to conclusions too quickly.
In your question, you say that you haven't received any response for ...
- 5,257
5
votes
Can a LGPL project use contributed code after the original contributor withdrew it and was banned from the project?
There doesn't seem to be a copyright violation here. The code was pretty clearly released under the LGPL, and open source licenses are (almost certainly) irrevocable; it doesn't matter that the patch ...
- 10.2k
5
votes
Accepted
Is it in line with the DCO that a github sign-off needs and publishes full name + an email "that matches the commit author"?
Some projects such as Linux ask for the DCO to be signed in order to do due diligence, and ultimately to protect downstream users. The DCO does not forbid projects from establishing individual ...
- 33k
5
votes
How to ensure the license for GitHub PRs?
I found a service https://cla-assistant.io, recommended by https://cla.github.com.
Makes a hook to ensure every contributor signs the CLA.
Looks good so far. Will try and see how it goes.
- 201
4
votes
Accepted
Relicensing from GPLv3 to GPLv2
Since others have written code for the project, I believe they also have a small claim in the copyright of the project as a whole. Without a consensus of all copyright holders, I don't believe you are ...
- 1,844
4
votes
Is it acceptable to change the implementation language in a pull request?
is it acceptable to change the implementation language via pull request?
Everything is "acceptable" for you to propose... but not everything may be accepted. If you were to submit a PR to one of my ...
- 13.8k
4
votes
How can I know how much of a change to make in each of my pull requests?
The only correct answer here is "it depends".
You need to know your audience - in this case the people who will be accepting the pull requests.
Often, when you first start contributing to a project, ...
- 6,655
4
votes
Can I use an unmerged pull request to an Apache 2.0 project in my proprietary fork?
Pull from the fork, not from the PR itself.
The PR must be coming from another GitHub repo which would be a fork of the main one.
That fork must also have a LICENSE file along with commits you are ...
- 248
3
votes
Relicensing from GPLv3 to GPLv2
When receiving contributions to a project, the default assumption is that the contribution is under the same licence as the project itself.
The main exceptions are when the contribution explicitly ...
- 22.8k
3
votes
Accepted
Need feature in PR with failing checks
To resolve this problem you can fork the version that includes a feature that you need and resolve the check problem. After that you can submit the PR with your changes.
An example:
There exist a ...
- 156
3
votes
Who is responsible on resolving conflicts on different PRs?
As @planetmaker pointed out, every one has their opinions. But weighing in my $.02, it's usually first raised first merged. So, whoever raised it later has to work on merging it in. The reason for ...
- 31
3
votes
How could a large open source project manage the Pull Requests?
Large bazaar-style open source projects usually don't just have one but many maintainers who review pull requests. Those often specialize in specific sub-modules of the application, so they have a ...
- 11.2k
3
votes
Can I use an unmerged pull request to an Apache 2.0 project in my proprietary fork?
Particularly referencing GitHub's Terms of Service, it is highly likely that the PR can be considered to be licensed under the Apache 2.0 license and therefore your company could happily use it in ...
- 10.2k
3
votes
Accepted
What are the implications of accepting pull-requests to an AGPLv3 project under the same license?
Is it correct that I will now have to publish any further changes made to the project?
No. But if you choose to distribute it, you will be obliged to fulfil the licence's obligations, including ...
- 37.6k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible