Re: [trinity-devel] Contributor License Agreements

All, After much consideration I have decided it would be safest to require our developers to formalize their open-source contributions with a CLA. The CLA on the main TDE site does not transfer copyright or do anything objectionable like Canonical's old CLA did; it simply formalizes the long-standing intuitive agreement between open-source contributors and open-source projects. Specifically, contributors grant a license to use, redistribute, modify, etc. the contributed work under our approved open-source licenses (sadly this formalization is required even though most people would think contributing to an open source project automatically granted those rights!), waive any patent rights they may otherwise hold for the contribution (some people contribute then sue for high damages), etc. Fairly standard stuff but in the increasingly litigious environment of the United States the risks are just too high to continue without a CLA. I have not arrived at this decision lightly, but have tried to keep the CLA as minimal as possible while protecting the project. I don't believe the CLA grants any further rights to the project than already intuitively granted when people contribute to an open source project; if I am in error please let me know ASAP! Until I get feedback from the core team this is not mandatory for anyone who has already contributed to the project. Above all I do not want to alienate the core development team without whom this project would not be possible. The agreements (and rationale) are available here: https://www.trinitydesktop.org/cla/ Thank you for your consideration, Timothy Pearson Trinity Desktop Project