Thread: Corporate and Individual Contributor License Agreements (CLAs)
<font face="Verdana"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal;font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18.4799995422363px; orphans:auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing:0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; display: inline !important; float: none; background-color:rgb(249, 249, 249);"><font face="Verdana"></font></span>Hi folks,<br /><br /> My corp (CSC) OSS divisionrequires CLAs to be signed for OSS project participation to begin. I need to fix a few problems in PGJDBC driverand am unable to start without them. Neither Google nor PG Wiki contain CLA licenses and I have no idea where elseto look.<br /> PostgreSQL Global Development Group doesn't have its own website nor mentions any contributors/volunteerson "legal" side.<br /><br /> Can anyone help by letting me know who to contact or where to look?<br/><br /> Thanks a lot,<br /> Arcadiy Ivanov<br /><br /></font>
On Mon, Oct 6, 2014 at 9:58 PM, Arcadiy Ivanov <arcadiy@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi folks, > > My corp (CSC) OSS division requires CLAs to be signed for OSS project > participation to begin. I need to fix a few problems in PGJDBC driver and am > unable to start without them. Neither Google nor PG Wiki contain CLA > licenses and I have no idea where else to look. > PostgreSQL Global Development Group doesn't have its own website nor > mentions any contributors/volunteers on "legal" side. > > Can anyone help by letting me know who to contact or where to look? This is covered in the Developer FAQ at http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Developer_FAQ#Do_I_need_to_sign_a_copyright_assignment.3F Bottom line is, there is no CLA to sign. (And the PostgeSQL Global Development Group certainly has it's own website - it's www.postgresql.org) -- Magnus HaganderMe: http://www.hagander.net/Work: http://www.redpill-linpro.com/
Arcadiy Ivanov <arcadiy@gmail.com> writes:
> My corp (CSC) OSS division requires CLAs to be signed for OSS project
> participation to begin. I need to fix a few problems in PGJDBC driver
> and am unable to start without them. Neither Google nor PG Wiki contain
> CLA licenses and I have no idea where else to look.
> PostgreSQL Global Development Group doesn't have its own website nor
> mentions any contributors/volunteers on "legal" side.
> Can anyone help by letting me know who to contact or where to look?
There are no such agreements for Postgres work. The community explicitly
rejected the idea more than a dozen years ago. If your lawyers can't cope
with the concept of informal communities, I'm sorry, but we're not going
to burden ourselves with paperwork in order to make them happy.
regards, tom lane
Thank you Magnus. The absence of legal entity and therefore of CLAs will make for an awesome discussion with legal. :D On 2014-10-06 16:04, Magnus Hagander wrote: > On Mon, Oct 6, 2014 at 9:58 PM, Arcadiy Ivanov <arcadiy@gmail.com> wrote: >> Hi folks, >> >> My corp (CSC) OSS division requires CLAs to be signed for OSS project >> participation to begin. I need to fix a few problems in PGJDBC driver and am >> unable to start without them. Neither Google nor PG Wiki contain CLA >> licenses and I have no idea where else to look. >> PostgreSQL Global Development Group doesn't have its own website nor >> mentions any contributors/volunteers on "legal" side. >> >> Can anyone help by letting me know who to contact or where to look? > This is covered in the Developer FAQ at > http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Developer_FAQ#Do_I_need_to_sign_a_copyright_assignment.3F > > Bottom line is, there is no CLA to sign. > > (And the PostgeSQL Global Development Group certainly has it's own > website - it's www.postgresql.org) >
Thanks Tom. On 2014-10-06 16:06, Tom Lane wrote: > Arcadiy Ivanov <arcadiy@gmail.com> writes: >> My corp (CSC) OSS division requires CLAs to be signed for OSS project >> participation to begin. I need to fix a few problems in PGJDBC driver >> and am unable to start without them. Neither Google nor PG Wiki contain >> CLA licenses and I have no idea where else to look. >> PostgreSQL Global Development Group doesn't have its own website nor >> mentions any contributors/volunteers on "legal" side. >> Can anyone help by letting me know who to contact or where to look? > There are no such agreements for Postgres work. The community explicitly > rejected the idea more than a dozen years ago. If your lawyers can't cope > with the concept of informal communities, I'm sorry, but we're not going > to burden ourselves with paperwork in order to make them happy. > > regards, tom lane >
On 10/07/2014 04:10 AM, Arcadiy Ivanov wrote: > Thank you Magnus. > The absence of legal entity and therefore of CLAs will make for an > awesome discussion with legal. :D They want a piece of paper to sign. So print out the PostgreSQL license. Sign it. Hand it to them. That might satisfy them. They can even scan it and send it to someone if they want, though I expect it'd go straight in the trash mailbox or get a perfunctory reply along the lines of "I don't know what you expect me to do with this". Candidates to receive such a message might be: http://www.postgresql.eu/about/contact/ https://www.postgresql.us/contact though I don't speak for either of them. If they want some written acknowledgement from "PostgreSQL" that you're allowed to contribute that'll be harder because there isn't really anyone to supply such an acknowledgement. One of the two associations above might be able to help, or you could contact someone from: http://www.postgresql.org/support/professional_support/ to assist your legal team. A final option would be to contact the SFLC: https://www.softwarefreedom.org/ who are *not* associated with PostgreSQL, but might be able to provide useful general advice, especially if your company is willing to pay for the time they spend doing so. Note that there is never any guarantee that your contributions will be accepted by PgJDBC, the core project, or anybody else. That will be judged on perceived merit and on how effectively you explain the utility of the changes you want to make. Some companies find it easier to work via partners experienced with the development model; again, you can find candidates at http://www.postgresql.org/support/professional_support/ . -- Craig Ringer http://www.2ndQuadrant.com/PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Training & Services
On 10/07/2014 03:58 AM, Arcadiy Ivanov wrote: > Hi folks, > > My corp (CSC) OSS division requires CLAs to be signed for OSS project > participation to begin. I need to fix a few problems in PGJDBC driver > and am unable to start without them. Would you mind enumerating those problems? Ideally, it'd be best to do so as github issues on https://github.com/pgjdbc/pgjdbc/ accompanied by details and where possible test cases. A post to the PgJDBC mailing list would be OK too. PgJDBC is a separate, though associated, project, and pgsql-hackers isn't really the right place. Before starting work on fixing issues it's important to discuss them and make sure there's a reasonable level of agreement that those issues are in fact problems, and that the approach you plan on taking to fix them will be acceptable. Otherwise you might do a lot of work only to have it rejected, or to find that you've fixed a problem that really stemmed from a misunderstanding of how something works. -- Craig Ringer http://www.2ndQuadrant.com/PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Training & Services
Arcadiy, You may want to refer them to the license itself which will make it very easy for them to understand why the Contributor License Agreement is not required: PostgreSQL is released under the PostgreSQL License, a liberal Open Source license, similar to the BSD or MIT licenses. PostgreSQL Database Management System (formerly known as Postgres, then as Postgres95) Portions Copyright (c) 1996-2014, The PostgreSQL Global Development Group Portions Copyright (c) 1994, The Regents of the University of California Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose, without fee, and without a written agreement is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph and the following two paragraphs appear in all copies. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BE LIABLE TO ANY PARTY FOR DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOST PROFITS, ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE AND ITS DOCUMENTATION, EVEN IF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ANY WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE SOFTWARE PROVIDED HEREUNDER IS ON AN "AS IS" BASIS, AND THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA HAS NO OBLIGATIONS TO PROVIDE MAINTENANCE, SUPPORT, UPDATES, ENHANCEMENTS, OR MODIFICATIONS. -- Command Prompt, Inc. - http://www.commandprompt.com/ 503-667-4564 PostgreSQL Support, Training, Professional Services and Development High Availability, Oracle Conversion, @cmdpromptinc "If we send our children to Caesar for their education, we should not be surprised when they come back as Romans."