Contributor License Agreement

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A Contributor License Agreement ( CLA ), and Contributor Agreement is a document in which the conditions are described under which intellectual property can be contributed to a project or projects; usually it is a software project under an open source license .

Reason

CLAs are helpful in making it easier for providers to sell license-compliant open source software - the CLA avoids license disputes. It can also allow the “main software producer” to convert “his” open source software to a different license model without having to obtain the approval of third parties who have also contributed.

The purpose of a CLA is to ensure that the project supervisor has the necessary rights and approvals with regard to all contributions in order to distribute the project / software under the selected license. This often means that contributing third parties have to hand over their intellectual property rights to the "project owner" to a large extent, mostly with regard to any contribution to the project. Often they also have to grant the project owner extensive non-revocable license and usage rights to all of their contributions in order to be allowed to contribute.

Occasionally, CLAs also serve to sensitize contributors to their intellectual property rights.

Usage examples

For example, the Apache Software Foundation requires those willing to contribute to the CLAs defined by Apache in order to be allowed to contribute to Apache's projects. Even Google constitutes acceptance of his CLAs.

The company Canonical provides as "Project Harmony" a general template for other companies and projects.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Licenses .
  2. ↑ Contributing FAQ . Archived from the original on December 9, 2007. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 22, 2007. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / forge.mysql.com
  3. ^ Contributor License Agreements . Oss-watch.ac.uk. Retrieved January 24, 2014.
  4. ^ Licenses . Apache.org. Retrieved January 24, 2014.
  5. ↑ Google Individual Contributor License Agreement, v1.1 . google.com. Retrieved June 9, 2014.
  6. ^ Amanda Brock: Project Harmony looks to improve contribution agreements . June 24, 2010.
    "... to assist organizations which use contribution agreements by providing standardized variable templates with clear and concise explanations ...."