[fusion-dev] contributors agreements ??

[Daniel Morissette]

Hi Paul,

It's a great idea to solve these questions now while the project is 
still young.

I think my preference would be for something less rigid than what 
OpenLayers has, but a bit more formal than the current MapServer 
situation (which might change eventually). I'd probably go with a 
scenario where committers are required to sign a committer agreement 
(either on paper or electronically), and they take responsibility for 
all code that they commit, including small patches contributed by 
non-committers if they feel that they are appropriate and after they 
have received confirmation from the contributor that the code is clean 
and safe to include in the software (this should be one of their 
responsibilities in the committer agreement). The inclusion of large 
patches from non-committers could also be facilitated by the 
non-committer signing some kind of contributor agreement that would be 
the same as the committer agreement without the commit 
right/responsibilities part.

That's my preference based on my experience with other projects, but I 
think we'd be fine with anything as long as we have something in place 
to protect the project and that it's not too rigid to avoid creating a 
barrier to small contributions.

Daniel

P.S. Perhaps the Fusion PSC could be formalized first (or was that done 
already, I forget?), and then solving this would be the PSC's first job.


Paul Spencer wrote:
> Given that one of our goals is eventual incubation into OSGeo, I would 
> like to be well prepared for the incubation process.  The most difficult 
> part of that process for existing projects seems to be the code 
> provenance review (where did all the code come from and do you clearly 
> have the right to include it in your project).
> 
> At this point in time, all the code in Fusion is copyright either DM 
> Solutions Group or MapGears (thanks Alan!).  As we are starting to get 
> more traffic on the lists, it is conceivable that we will start getting 
> bug fixes, patches, and new features contributed from outside DM 
> Solutions Group.  I would like to encourage this as much as possible, 
> while maintaining clear entitlement to use the code that is contributed.
> 
> There are two models in use right now in the projects that I am involved 
> in.
> 
> One is to require a signed contributors agreement for anyone that 
> submits code (committer or not).  Patches, features etc coming from 
> anyone who has not signed a contributors agreement are not included.  
> OpenLayers uses this model.
> 
> The other is to have a committers agreement, whereby committers take 
> responsibility for the code they are committing to the repository.  They 
> can accept user contributions and commit them if they feel the 
> contribution is sound.  MapServer uses this model.
> 
> On the other axis is whether or not to require a signed agreement 
> (OpenLayers) or just an acknowledgement of the agreement (MapServer).
> 
> I'm open on both issues, I would like to get feedback from the (now 
> growing) community of developers.  But I would like to put something in 
> place before we start getting a lot of contributions so we can prevent 
> some of the leg work required for incubation.
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Paul
> 
> __________________________________________
> 
>    Paul Spencer
>    Chief Technology Officer
>    DM Solutions Group Inc
>    http://www.dmsolutions.ca/
> 
> _______________________________________________
> fusion-dev mailing list
> fusion-dev at lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/fusion-dev


-- 
Daniel Morissette
http://www.mapgears.com/