Hi Community, I would like to start a discussion regarding the copyright compliance strategy for the legacy code in our project (originally derived from Alibaba EasyExcel).
As many of you know, Apache Fesod (formerly FastExcel) originated as a fork of EasyExcel. While we have secured the Software Grant Agreement (SGA) for all the new code and improvements developed under FastExcel/Fesod, we need to clarify the handling of the legacy code inherited from EasyExcel. 1. Context & SGA Status New Code (FastExcel/Fesod): The incremental contributions are fully covered by the SGA submitted by Pengfei Ji. Legacy Code (EasyExcel): The original code belongs to Alibaba Group. Since the upstream project is effectively in archived mode, obtaining a new SGA from Alibaba for this fork is not feasible. 2. The Strategy (The "Pekko Route"). After consulting with our Mentors[1], we propose to adopt the same approach used by Apache Pekko (which forked from Akka). Instead of seeking an SGA for the legacy code, we will treat it as existing open-source code licensed under Apache License 2.0. This is fully compliant with ASF policies as long as we respect the original attribution. Specific Actions: - Retain Headers: We will strictly retain the original Alibaba copyright headers in all source files derived from EasyExcel. - Update NOTICE: We will explicitly attribute Alibaba EasyExcel in the project's NOTICE file. 3. Immediate Plan for 2.0.1-incubating. We are currently preparing the 2.0.1-incubating release. Since reviewing and updating copyright headers across the entire codebase is a significant and time-consuming task, we will use DISCLAIMER-WIP for this upcoming release. This transparently indicates that the IP clearance and header cleanup for legacy code are in progress. I have submitted a PR[2] to update the NOTICE file and switch to DISCLAIMER-WIP to reflect this status. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns regarding this approach. [1]. https://lists.apache.org/thread/yp38699krnjsz2rg6zmq3qb62v7q846f [2]. https://github.com/apache/fesod/pull/834 Best, Shuxin Pan --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
