34 lines
1.7 KiB
ReStructuredText
34 lines
1.7 KiB
ReStructuredText
===============================================
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2014-09-09 Recommendation to Adopt DCO as CLA
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===============================================
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The OpenStack Technical Committee, representing the developer
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community, requests that the Board of Directors consider implementing
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the `Developer Certificate of Origin`_ (DCO) as the Contributor
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License Agreement (CLA) for the OpenStack project.
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The current CLA is a barrier to contributions from new developers
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because it is a unique and unfamiliar legal document that must be
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reviewed. Many developers are uncertain as to what its provisions
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actually are. Instead, most developers would be far more comfortable
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with the common understanding provided by the well-known Apache
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License (whose provisions are understood by developers and corporate
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counsels alike).
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As the OpenStack project grows, we need to continually recruit new
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developers to the project as well as convince new users that they will
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be able to contribute. The current CLA is a warning flag to some open
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source developers that the project does not operate in the way they
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expect an open source project to work, and it makes it more difficult
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for users to contribute simple fixes easily.
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The need for the project and its contributors to understand and agree
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upon the terms under which contributions are made is important. The
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DCO accomplishes that by indicating that developers are responsible
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for the code that they contribute and that they understand that the
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contribution is under the terms of the Apache License. This simple
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process is familiar to developers and legal counsels and is all that
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is required for the licensing needs of OpenStack.
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.. _Developer Certificate of Origin: http://developercertificate.org/
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