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1 files changed, 99 insertions, 14 deletions
diff --git a/doc/mainpage.dox b/doc/mainpage.dox index 8bf78e41..fc65e413 100644 --- a/doc/mainpage.dox +++ b/doc/mainpage.dox @@ -40,20 +40,105 @@ The libssh library provides: @section main-copyright Copyright Policy -The developers of libssh have a policy of asking for contributions to be made -under the personal copyright of the contributor, instead of a corporate -copyright. - -There are some reasons for the establishment of this policy: - - @li Individual copyrights make copyright registration in the US a simpler - process. - @li If libssh is copyrighted by individuals rather than corporations, - decisions regarding enforcement and protection of copyright will, more - likely, be made in the interests of the project, and not in the interests - of any corporation’s shareholders. - @li If we ever need to relicense a portion of the code contacting individuals - for permission to do so is much easier than contacting a company. +libssh is a project with distributed copyright ownership, which means we prefer +the copyright on parts of libssh to be held by individuals rather than +corporations if possible. There are historical legal reasons for this, but one +of the best ways to explain it is that it’s much easier to work with +individuals who have ownership than corporate legal departments if we ever need +to make reasonable compromises with people using and working with libssh. + +We track the ownership of every part of libssh via git, our source code control +system, so we know the provenance of every piece of code that is committed to +libssh. + +So if possible, if you’re doing libssh changes on behalf of a company who +normally owns all the work you do please get them to assign personal copyright +ownership of your changes to you as an individual, that makes things very easy +for us to work with and avoids bringing corporate legal departments into the +picture. + +If you can’t do this we can still accept patches from you owned by your +employer under a standard employment contract with corporate copyright +ownership. It just requires a simple set-up process first. + +We use a process very similar to the way things are done in the Linux Kernel +community, so it should be very easy to get a sign off from your corporate +legal department. The only changes we’ve made are to accommodate the license we +use, which is LGPLv2 (or later) whereas the Linux kernel uses GPLv2. + +The process is called signing. + +How to sign your work +---------------------- + +Once you have permission to contribute to libssh from your employer, simply +email a copy of the following text from your corporate email address to: + +contributing@libssh.org + +@verbatim +libssh Developer's Certificate of Origin. Version 1.0 + +By making a contribution to this project, I certify that: + +(a) The contribution was created in whole or in part by me and I + have the right to submit it under the appropriate + version of the GNU General Public License; or + +(b) The contribution is based upon previous work that, to the best of + my knowledge, is covered under an appropriate open source license + and I have the right under that license to submit that work with + modifications, whether created in whole or in part by me, under + the GNU General Public License, in the appropriate version; or + +(c) The contribution was provided directly to me by some other + person who certified (a) or (b) and I have not modified it. + +(d) I understand and agree that this project and the contribution are + public and that a record of the contribution (including all + metadata and personal information I submit with it, including my + sign-off) is maintained indefinitely and may be redistributed + consistent with the libssh Team's policies and the requirements of + the GNU GPL where they are relevant. + +(e) I am granting this work to this project under the terms of the + GNU Lesser General Public License as published by the + Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of + the License, or (at the option of the project) any later version. + +http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl-2.1.html +@endverbatim + +We will maintain a copy of that email as a record that you have the rights to +contribute code to libssh under the required licenses whilst working for the +company where the email came from. + +Then when sending in a patch via the normal mechanisms described above, add a +line that states: + +@verbatim + Signed-off-by: Random J Developer <random@developer.example.org> +@endverbatim + +using your real name and the email address you sent the original email you used +to send the libssh Developer’s Certificate of Origin to us (sorry, no +pseudonyms or anonymous contributions.) + +That’s it! Such code can then quite happily contain changes that have copyright +messages such as: + +@verbatim + (c) Example Corporation. +@endverbatim + +and can be merged into the libssh codebase in the same way as patches from any +other individual. You don’t need to send in a copy of the libssh Developer’s +Certificate of Origin for each patch, or inside each patch. Just the sign-off +message is all that is required once we’ve received the initial email. + +Have fun and happy libssh hacking! + +The libssh Team @section main-rfc Internet standard |