OSGeo Graduation: All code contributors have agreed to abide by the project’s license policy, and this agreement has been documented and archived

[dstenger]

Please also see #393.

[dstenger]

TODO: Create wiki page.

[jodygarnett]

There are a large range of options here, we really want to make sure that the folks contributing to the projects realize they granting you permission to distribute the shared work using an open source license.

The classic example is an employee working for a municipality quickly offering you a fix or a correction to your documentation, and not noticing that their employer owns the work of their hands and must be the entity agreeing to share the fix or documentation correction

As for options:

• Some projects reference the GitHub terms of service (see Open Layers CONTRIBUTING.md )
• An email to a public email list is used by some projects
• A file CONTRIBUTORS.md that folks add their name to over time
• Some projects ask for a contributor license agreement to be sent by an individual or employer.
• Also you can tell us what you are doing instead (for example see Open Layers CONTRIBUTING.md which references the GitHub terms of service)

Note on the Apache License

The project license (Apache) is very permissive, the Apache Foundation itself is asymmetrical with one license for distribution (which you use) and a separate license for contributors (contributor license agreement). This asks contributors to grant additional permissions and legal protections to the project leadership, beyond those afforded to users of the software.

OSGeo is in position to manage CLA collection for CITE Team Engine, but you may wish to consider doing this yourself as the OGC.

[jodygarnett]

This whole thread is:

OSGeo is very careful with contribution to standards, what care is taken for contributing to this codebase?

This is not a request to add more care, just describe the care you are already doing (even if it is minimal).

[dstenger]

Rules for contributions were documented in CONTRIBUTING.md: #617

@jodygarnett Can you please do a short review of the pull request?