ASF Contributor Agreements¶
The Apache Software Foundation uses various agreements toaccept contributions of software code and documentation from individuals and corporations, and to acceptlarger grants of existing software products.
These agreements help us achieve our goal of providing reliable andlong-lived software products through collaborative, open-source softwaredevelopment. In all cases, contributors retain full rights to use theiroriginal contributions for any other purpose outside of Apache, whileproviding the ASF and its projects the right to distribute and build upontheir work.
Contributor License Agreements¶
All contributors of ideas, code, or documentation toany Apache projects must complete, sign, and submit viaemail anIndividual Contributor License Agreement (ICLA).
The purpose of this agreement is to clearly define theterms under which intellectual property has been contributed to the ASF andthereby allow us to defend the project should there be a legal disputeregarding the software. An individual must have submitted a signed ICLA to the ASF before we give them commit rights to any ASF project.
For a corporation that assigns employees to work on an Apache project,aCorporate CLA (CCLA) is available to cover contributingintellectual property via the corporation that may have been assigned aspart of an employment agreement.
Note that a Corporate CLA does not removethe need for every developer to sign their own ICLA as an individual, whichcovers both contributions the corporation signing the CCLA owns, and those it does not own.
The CCLA legally binds the corporation, so a person withauthority to enter into legal contracts on behalf of the corporation must sign it.
The ICLA an individual signs is not tied to any employer they may have, so we recommend that individuals use their personal email addresses in the contact details, rather than their @work addresses.
The ASF publishes yourlegal name unless you provide an alternativedisplay name.For example, if your full name is Andrew Bernard Charles Dickens, but you wishto be known as Andrew Dickens, enter the latter as your Display Name.
We do not publish your postal address.
If you are submitting an ICLA in response to an invitation from a PMC, be sure toidentify the project via the form field "notify project". Also, choose a preferred ID thatis not already in use. Apache IDs must start with an alphabetic character and containat least two additional alphanumeric characters (no special characters).You can check for IDs in usehere.
Software License Grant¶
When an individual or corporation decides to donate a body of existingsoftware or documentation to one of the Apache projects, they need toexecute a formalSoftware Grant Agreement (SGA) withthe ASF. Typically, they do this after negotiating approval with the ASFIncubator or one of the PMCs, since the ASFdoes not accept software unless there is a viable community available tosupport it as part of a collaborative project.
How-To: Submitting license agreements and grants¶
You may sign documents by hand or by electronic signature, and submit them by email. The ASF no longer accepts submissions by postal mail or by fax.
When submitting by email, please fill in the form with a PDF viewer, thenprint and sign it, scan all pages into a single PDF file,and attach the PDF file to an email addressed tosecretary@apache.org.
Do not copy anyone else on your submission, as the documents containPersonally Identifiable Information that should not be exposed to anyoneoutside the secretary team.
No printer? SeeCLA Frequently Asked Questions
You must send the attachment from the email address you list in the document.Send only one attached document per email.
If you prefer to sign electronically, fill in the form, save it locally (e.g. icla.pdf), and sign thefile by preparing a detached PGP signature. For example,
gpg --armor --detach-sign icla.pdf
This will create a file namedicla.pdf.asc.
Send both the file (icla.pdf) and the signature (icla.pdf.asc) as attachments in the same email tosecretary@apache.org. Please send only one complete document (file plus signature) in each email.
Do not submit yourpublic key to Apache. Instead, upload your public key tokeyserver.ubuntu.com.
The files you submit should be named
- icla.pdf and icla.pdf.asc for individual agreements
- ccla.pdf and ccla.pdf.asc for corporate agreements
- software-grant.pdf and software-grant.pdf.asc for grants
We do not accept zip files or other archives.We do not accept links to files; you must attach the files to the email.
Note that typing your name in the field at the bottom of the document is not signing,regardless of the font that you use.
A valid signature involves one of:
- Writing your signature by hand on a printed copy of the document
- Digitally signing the document by hand-drawing a signature
- Signing the document digitally via gpg
- Signing the document via DocuSign
We will not accept unsigned documents.
Questions?¶
For answers to frequently asked questions about contribution agreements, consult ourCLA Frequently Asked Questions page.