Re: Corporate and Individual Contributor License Agreements (CLAs)

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?

Thanks a lot,
Arcadiy Ivanov

On Mon, Oct 6, 2014 at 9:58 PM, Arcadiy Ivanov <arcadiy(at)gmail(dot)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 Hagander
Me: http://www.hagander.net/
Work: http://www.redpill-linpro.com/

Arcadiy Ivanov <arcadiy(at)gmail(dot)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(at)gmail(dot)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(at)gmail(dot)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."