3. Guide to the Developer Grant and Certificate of Origin

3.1. Things To Consider Before Contributing to the Project

To help with understanding what’s required to contribute to Forj, we are providing guidance on why the Project has made certain decisions.

  • The Project has selected the Apache 2.0 license, popular for its permissive and flexible properties, while still encouraging a collaborative community.

  • The Project has selected an approach to contributions inspired by the popular Linux Developer “Certificate of Origin”. This approach makes it simple for new contributors to get started, and avoids bureaucracy in tracking contributions and contributors.

  • To indicate accordance, each contributor must validate accordance on Forj’s Gerrit:
    • Go to Forj’s Gerrit then to Settings / Agreements / New Contributor Agreement / DCO
    • Review carefully the agreement, if you agree, enter “I AGREE” in the box, and click “Submit agreement”

Agreeing to the DCO means that you state that the following are true of your contribution:

  • I created this contribution/change and have the right to submit it to the Project; or
  • I created this contribution/change based on a previous work with a compatible open source license; or
  • This contribution/change has been provided to me by someone who did (a) or (b) and I am submitting the contribution unchanged.
  • I understand this contribution is public and may be redistributed as open source software.
  • I understand that I retain copyright ownership in this contribution and I am granting the Project a copyright license to use, modify and distribute my contribution. The Project may relicense my contribution under other OSI-approved licenses.

Note

You must confirm the nature of your contribution with the actual certificate and license language.

3.2. Why are we including the final paragraph which is not part of the Linux DCO?

Under the Apache Software License v2.0, each contributor provides a copyright license for their contribution to all licensees of the Project. The Project includes some source code files, which originate under other OSI-approved licenses compatible with the Apache license. Modifications to such files will typically be licensed by the Project under the original open source software license.

In some cases the Project may need to relicense your contribution under other OSI-approved open source licenses in order to maintain the Apache-based licensing. For example, if your contribution is affected by GPL v2 code, the Project may dual-license your code under both Apache 2.0 and GPL v2 or LGPLv2.1. This satisfies the GPL requirements, while still allowing other users to make use of the code under Apache.

3.3. The Certificate

Forj Developer Grant and Certificate of Origin 1.0 By making a contribution to the Forj Project (“Project”), I represent and warrant that:

  1. The contribution was created in whole or in part by me and I have the right to submit the contribution on my own behalf or on behalf of a third party who has authorized me to submit this contribution to the Project; or
  2. 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 and authorization to submit that work with modifications, whether created in whole or in part by me, under the same open source license (unless I am permitted to submit under a different license) that I have identified in the contribution; or
  3. The contribution was provided directly to me by some other person who represented and warranted (a) or (b) and I have not modified it.
  4. I understand and agree that this Project and the contribution are publicly known and that a record of the contribution (including all personal information I submit with it, including my sign-off record) is maintained indefinitely and may be redistributed consistent with this Project or the open source license(s) involved.

I hereby grant to the Project, HP and recipients of software distributed by the Project a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable copyright license to reproduce, modify, prepare derivative works of, publicly display, publicly perform, sublicense, and distribute this contribution and such modifications and derivative works consistent with this Project, the open source license indicated in the previous work or other appropriate open source license specified by the Project and approved by the Open Source Initiative(OSI) at http://www.opensource.org.