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Among other things, it allows the project owner to relicense the project without having to contact every contributor requesting permission to relicense.
by oakwhiz 11y ago
Among other things, it allows the project owner to relicense the project without having to contact every contributor requesting permission to relicense.
- Tomte 11y agoAnd usually makes accepting contributions from people outside the US a mess. Ask the FSF how long it took them to finally sort out all the legal issues and prepare new forms.
- skrebbel 11y agoWhy would a Canadian programmer have trouble accepting contributions from outside the US, specifically?
- detaro 11y agoNot specifically outside the US, but the US (and apparently Canada) have the concept of copyright assignment, many other countries don't, so it gets interesting what value and consequences a copyright assignment by a programmer from there has, esp. in local courts and when the contributor isn't on your side.
- rwmj 11y agoDon't forget that "moral rights" may not be assigned at all, in at least some countries, so you'll need a per-country agreement that the contributor won't enforce them ... in countries where it is possible to agree not to enforce them, which is not all countries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_rights#In_Europe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_rights#In_Europe
- vog 11y agoAlso, people are generally more inclined to sign that for a non-profit organization like FSF or the OSGeo Foundation, than for an individual person, although that's still more accepted than signing to a company. CLA to non-profit > CLA to indidual > CLA to company