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CLA's required by some projects effectively require the contributor to give away all rights to the receiving organization. There are other forms of CLA that do
by not2b 3y ago
CLA's required by some projects effectively require the contributor to give away all rights to the receiving organization. There are other forms of CLA that do not transfer these rights, but are still agreements (which is what the A stands for) between the contributor and the receiving organization. These might allow the recipient to change the license, or they might not. The DCO is just a statement and does not permit the receiving organization to distribute under incompatible licensing terms.
- paxys 3y agoI'm sure some organization can write a "DCO" which says the exact same thing. Ultimately what matters isn't the title of the document but the content. There are plenty of CLAs that just ask for the bare minimum for the project to be able to function (see ones from any of the organizations I mentioned).
- not2b 3y agoUnfortunately, many CLAs give the company that controls the code the power to take the project proprietary (and they will call this the bare minimum of what they need). It's repeatedly happened, so contributors need to be careful with what they sign. Perhaps for a small bug fix they won't care, but for anything larger, beware.