IMO, CLAs should be required for any non-trivial contributions (as in-effect IP is being added and their contributions have to be done within a legal framework that preserves the overall code license) and our wording should better clarify (with examples, what qualifies).
The question, for the kafka example you cited, is if the boxed (linked from the other page; an indirection) disclaimer on their wiki here: https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/KAFKA/Contributing+Code+Changes provides the legal protections they believe it does. or can someone say "i missed reading that", "never saw that link", "i never explicitly agreed to that" (i.e., is it legally binding)? From: James Thomas <jthomas...@gmail.com> To: dev@openwhisk.apache.org Date: 07/16/2019 07:29 AM Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: Updating our contributions guide On Sat, 13 Jul 2019 at 22:07, Matt Sicker <boa...@gmail.com> wrote: > > I've looked around for some existing guidelines around CLA > requirements, and so far I've found this: > > https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.apache.org_licenses_contributor-2Dagreements.html-23clas&d=DwIBaQ&c=jf_iaSHvJObTbx-siA1ZOg&r=6zQLM7Gc0Sv1iwayKOKa4_SFxRIxS478q2gZlAJj4Zw&m=3FzsaU7BJAW77yLUILNEb313M3Hryq1dEyTL4U6L880&s=RHH3dpGAxPV7uUZ9Gjg8iZOL4aLq5BHQx4IkGZ3BTxk&e= > > So basically, the general idea I've seen is that small, trivial > changes do not require an ICLA, but anything non-trivial should > request one in order to establish provenance of the code over time. I've been looking at other larger ASF projects and can't find any reference to CLAs needed for contributions. This does seem to conflict with the advice on that page... Here's some examples: https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__kafka.apache.org_contributing.html&d=DwIBaQ&c=jf_iaSHvJObTbx-siA1ZOg&r=6zQLM7Gc0Sv1iwayKOKa4_SFxRIxS478q2gZlAJj4Zw&m=3FzsaU7BJAW77yLUILNEb313M3Hryq1dEyTL4U6L880&s=py_uMLrJNvQ90_r-jpkOdsCP4vX5H9CU0ZF9tdnBGA4&e= https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__cordova.apache.org_contribute_contribute-5Fguidelines.html&d=DwIBaQ&c=jf_iaSHvJObTbx-siA1ZOg&r=6zQLM7Gc0Sv1iwayKOKa4_SFxRIxS478q2gZlAJj4Zw&m=3FzsaU7BJAW77yLUILNEb313M3Hryq1dEyTL4U6L880&s=C23JKl6FgWRNwCj-qYYzfHuaegdyuwU0ZwPW7zkUA9A&e= https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__github.com_apache_couchdb_blob_master_CONTRIBUTING.md&d=DwIBaQ&c=jf_iaSHvJObTbx-siA1ZOg&r=6zQLM7Gc0Sv1iwayKOKa4_SFxRIxS478q2gZlAJj4Zw&m=3FzsaU7BJAW77yLUILNEb313M3Hryq1dEyTL4U6L880&s=NTcHIYRrcGhwOg8PF45UShU5VaQFL5R0EnTmyhR_nTU&e= I've also discovered this blog post ( https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__apetro.ghost.io_apache-2Dcontributors-2Dno-2Dcla_&d=DwIBaQ&c=jf_iaSHvJObTbx-siA1ZOg&r=6zQLM7Gc0Sv1iwayKOKa4_SFxRIxS478q2gZlAJj4Zw&m=3FzsaU7BJAW77yLUILNEb313M3Hryq1dEyTL4U6L880&s=mEW6RAODS_x7XwfTNZPTzNcRcGTnRxYc8osk29yXyJw&e= ) which looks at this issue and links to a mailing list thread: https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__mail-2Darchives.apache.org_mod-5Fmbox_www-2Dinfrastructure-2Ddev_201112.mbox_-253CA603FFCE-2D623B-2D43E9-2D87F8-2D39BAA51C72D1-40gbiv.com-253E&d=DwIBaQ&c=jf_iaSHvJObTbx-siA1ZOg&r=6zQLM7Gc0Sv1iwayKOKa4_SFxRIxS478q2gZlAJj4Zw&m=3FzsaU7BJAW77yLUILNEb313M3Hryq1dEyTL4U6L880&s=ef188SR8Xh200v3k6-Bh9-Evae9T_fK7bHZrsLnkrAI&e= with the following passage... "We don't need a CLA on file to accept contributions from non-committers. We just need a clear intent by the author to contribute under our normal terms." There are other links in the blog post to ASF projects discussing this in the past and coming to the same conclusion. -- Regards, James Thomas
