Legal:Fedora Project Contributor Agreement

= Fedora Project Contributor Agreement =

Overview
The Fedora Project Contributor Agreement is the current replacement for the old (retired) Fedora Individual Contributor License Agreement.

FAQ
Q. Why change the Fedora ICLA? A. The current Fedora ICLA wasn't really well structured for the needs of Fedora. It was composed of a lot of legal boilerplate, and was written before Fedora had really taken shape. In fact, the only reason that we've been able to leverage it for as long as we have is because of some creative interpretation on the part of Fedora Legal. Also, there were many people who could not agree to the Fedora ICLA for a variety of reasons, and we hope that the FPCA will resolve most (if not all) of those concerns.

Q. Why did you change the name from ICLA to FPCA? A. The new text is not really a "Contributor License Agreement" in the traditional sense, as that sort of agreement usually involves copyright assignment and an abandonment of rights to a project. The FPCA exists for one main reason: to ensure that contributions to Fedora have acceptable licensing terms. We chose a name that did not use "CLA" to avoid confusion and to mark it as a distinctly specific license.

Q. If I agree to the FPCA, am I assigning copyright to Fedora or Red Hat? A. No. The FPCA (like the Fedora ICLA before it) is not a copyright assignment agreement.

Q. The FPCA defines "default licenses" of MIT for code, and Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 Unported for content, why not $OTHER_LICENSE? A. These licenses were chosen because of their widespread use and compatibility with most other Free licenses.

Q. Why does the FPCA say I must waive Section 4d of the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license when it is used as a "default license"? A. Section 4d, if invoked, would potentially make the licensing non-free. By promising to waive that clause (which the license permits), you're ensuring that your contribution will be Free for Fedora and for everyone else. That's important for Fedora, so we wrote it in.

Q. Does this mean that Fedora will always relicense my contributions from $MY_LICENSE to MIT? A. No. If you put a Free license on your contribution, we will use it under the terms of that license. If you put it under a non-Free license, we won't use it at all. Only unlicensed contributions where the copyright holder is the Fedora contributor qualify for the "default licensing" clause.

Q. Are RPM spec files covered by the FPCA? A. Sure. They're a contribution, aren't they? :) Nevertheless, they are explicitly named as an example of a contribution, to clear up a past confusion.

Q. Do I need to physically sign the FPCA? A. No. We require that all contributors agree to it digitally, through the Fedora Accounts System (FAS). If you wish to additionally sign a physical copy and send it to us, the FPCA describes how to do this, but it is _NOT_ required.

Q. I signed the old Fedora ICLA, will I need to sign the FPCA? A. Yes. We will make a lot of noise about this and have a window of time for contributors to agree to the FPCA. Hopefully, the FPCA will work well for Fedora for the foreseeable future.

Q. I have a question/suggestion/flame about the FPCA that is not covered here, where should I send it to? A. If you want to discuss it in public, please subscribe to the fedora-legal-list and post your thoughts there. If you do not wish to discuss it in public, feel free to send it via email to legal@fedoraproject.org.

Q. I cannot agree to the FPCA, but the Fedora ICLA is okay for me, can I keep contributing under the terms of the Fedora ICLA? A. No. We're retiring the Fedora ICLA. Please contact us (either publicly or privately) and explain why this situation is occurring, and we will see if there is a change we can make to the FPCA to make it acceptable.

Q. When will the FPCA be available for use? A. The FPCA is currently available for use. New Fedora accounts are presented with the FPCA to sign, existing accounts will be prompted to sign the FPCA.

Q. When will the Fedora ICLA be retired? A. There will be a window of time (between Tuesday May 17, 2011 and Friday June 17, 2011) where we will attempt to get all current Fedora contributors who have agreed to the Fedora ICLA to agree to the FPCA. Once that window has closed, any contributors in the system who have not agreed to the FPCA will be removed from "cla_done" (note: this may affect membership in other, dependent FAS groups).

Q. Will all Fedora users/distributors be required to agree to the FPCA? A. No. Only Fedora contributors will be required to agree to the FPCA. Although, if you want to agree to it, you can. :)

Q. Can I use the FPCA as a license for my code/content? A. Well, technically, you can do whatever you want, but you really shouldn't. It wouldn't work very well.

Q. My FOSS friendly project would like to take the FPCA, change Fedora to the name of our project, and use the FPCA, can we do this? A. Sure. You can consider the FPCA to be under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (with section 4d waived), with the notable exception of the Fedora trademarks, which may only be used under the Fedora Trademark Guidelines. If modified, attribution should occur in the actual document itself. For attribution in other scenarios, please contact legal@fedoraproject.org. One piece of advice: If you decide to make changes beyond simply changing the name of the FPCA or replacing the Fedora trademarks, you really should consult with a lawyer, to make sure that the document is still legally valid and says what you mean. Remember, legalese is not English.

Q. Can we translate the FPCA into other languages? A. Yes, although only the English text is binding for the purposes of agreement. Any translations which are created are not "legal translations", and exist only to assist non-English speaking contributors. All Fedora contributors must agree to the English text.

Q. Who wrote this amazing masterpiece of legal text? A. Many people were involved in helping to craft this text. The primary author was Richard Fontana, with feedback from Tom Callaway, Pamela Chestek, Paul Frields, and Robert Tiller. Feel free to give them gifts (for example, drinks or tasty snacks) as thank yous, although, this is not a requirement (legal or otherwise). ;)

FPCA Text
The Fedora Project Contributor Agreement [Version 2011-03-29]

Goal

We require that contributors to Fedora (as defined below) agree to this Fedora Project Contributor Agreement (FPCA) to ensure that contributions to Fedora have acceptable licensing terms.

Non-Goals -

The FPCA is *not* a copyright assignment agreement.

The FPCA does *not* somehow supersede the existing licensing terms that apply to Fedora contributions. There are two important subpoints here. First, the FPCA does not apply to upstream code (or other material) that you didn't write; indeed, it would be preposterous for it to attempt to do so. Note the narrow way in which we have defined capital-c "Contribution". Second, the main provision of the FPCA specifies that a default license will apply to code that you wrote, but only to the extent that you have not bothered to put an explicit license on it. Therefore, the FPCA is *not* some sort of special permissive license granted to any party, despite the explicit choice of a more restrictive license by you or by upstream developers.

Terms -

0. Definitions.

"Acceptable License For Fedora" means a license selected from the appropriate categorical sublist of the full list of acceptable licenses for Fedora, currently located at https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Licensing, as that list may be revised from time to time by the Fedora Project Board. "Acceptable Licenses For Fedora" means that full list.

"CC-BY-SA" means the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license, as published at .

"Code" means (i) software code, (ii) any other functional material whose principal purpose is to control or facilitate the building of packages, such as an RPM spec file, (iii) font files, and (iv) other kinds of copyrightable material that the Fedora Project Board has classified as "code" rather than "content".

"Content" means any copyrightable material that is not Code, such as, without limitation, (i) non-functional data sets, (ii) documentation, (iii) wiki edits, (iv) music files, (v) graphic image files, (vi) help files, and (vii) other kinds of copyrightable material that the Fedora Project Board has classified as "content" rather than "code".

"Contribution" means a Work that You created, excluding any portion that was created by someone else. (For example, if You Submit a package to Fedora, the spec file You write may be a Contribution, but all the upstream code in the associated SRPM that You did not write is not a Contribution for purposes of this FPCA.) A Contribution consists either of Code or of Content.

"Current Default License", with respect to a Contribution, means (i) if the Contribution is Code, the MIT License, and (ii) if the Contribution is Content, CC-BY-SA supplemented by Moral Rights Clause Waiver and GPL Relicensing Permission.

"Fedora" means the community project led by the Fedora Project Board .

"Fedora Community" means (i) all Fedora participants, and (ii) all persons receiving Contributions directly or indirectly from or through Fedora.

"GPL" means the GNU General Public License, version 2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation, or the GNU Affero General Public License, version 3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.

"GPL-Covered Derivative" of a Contribution means an adaptation or derivative work of the Contribution, or a compilation that includes the Contribution (or such adaptation or derivative work), where such adaptation, derivative work, or compilation, if distributed or made available to the public, would be required to be licensed under the GPL because it is based on or includes a Work governed by the GPL.

"GPL Relicensing Permission", with respect to a Contribution licensed under CC-BY-SA, means a grant of additional copyright permission to distribute or make available to the public a copy of a GPL-Covered Derivative of the Contribution under the terms of the applicable version of the GPL, with no conditions of CC-BY-SA that would be treated as "further restrictions" within the meaning of the applicable version of the GPL surviving such distribution with respect to that copy.

"Licensed" means covered by explicit licensing terms that are conspicuous and readily discernible to recipients.

"MIT License" means the license identified as "Modern Style with sublicense" at .

"Moral Rights Clause Waiver" means a waiver of the right to enforce, and an agreement not to assert, Section 4d of CC-BY-SA against the Fedora Community, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law.

"Submit" means to use some mode of digital communication (for example, without limitation, mailing lists, bug tracking systems, and source code version control systems administered by Fedora) to voluntarily provide a Contribution to Fedora.

"Unlicensed" means not Licensed.

"Work" means a copyrightable work of authorship. A Work may be a portion of a larger Work, and a Work may be a modification of or addition to another Work.

"You" means the individual accepting this instance of the FPCA.

1. Copyright Permission Required for All Contributions.

If You are not the copyright holder of a given Contribution that You wish to Submit to Fedora (for example, if Your employer or university holds copyright in it), it is Your responsibility to first obtain authorization from the copyright holder to Submit the Contribution under the terms of this FPCA on behalf of, or otherwise with the permission of, that copyright holder. One form of such authorization is for the copyright holder to place, or permit You to place, an Acceptable License For Fedora on the Contribution.

2. Licensed Contributions.

If Your Contribution is Licensed, Your Contribution will be governed by the terms under which it has been licensed.

3. Default Licensing of Unlicensed Contributions.

If You Submit an Unlicensed Contribution to Fedora, the license to the Fedora Community for that Contribution shall be the Current Default License.

The Fedora Project Board may, by public announcement, subsequently designate an additional or alternative default license for a given category of Contribution (a "Later Default License"). A Later Default License shall be chosen from the appropriate categorical sublist of Acceptable Licenses For Fedora.

Once a Later Default License has been designated, Your Unlicensed Contribution shall also be licensed to the Fedora Community under that Later Default License. Such designation shall not affect the continuing applicability of the Current Default License to Your Contribution.

You consent to having Fedora provide reasonable notice of Your licensing of Your Contribution under the Current Default License (and, if applicable, a Later Default License) in a manner determined by Fedora.

4. Public Domain United States Government Works.

Sections 1 through 3 of this FPCA do not apply to any Contribution to the extent that it is a work of the United States Government for which copyright is unavailable under 17 U.S.C. 105. 5. Acceptance.

You must signify Your assent to the terms of this FPCA through specific electronic means established by Fedora (such as by click-through acceptance means).

You may also, at Your option, and without eliminating the requirement set forth in the preceding paragraph, send a copy of this FPCA, bearing Your written signature indicating Your acceptance of its terms, by email to legal@fedoraproject.org, by fax to +1 919 754 3704, or by postal mail to:

Fedora Legal c/o Red Hat, Inc. 1801 Varsity Drive Raleigh, NC 27606 USA