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Never Contribute
A list of projects that include terms such as
- "You grant [organization] the ability to use the Contributions in any way." or
- "You grant [organization] ... relicenseable ... property rights."
— meaning your contributions can be relicensed, even under proprietary terms.
Avoid contributing to such projects! Better to make a fork!
Why This List Exists
Many organizations include terms in their Contributor License Agreements (CLAs) that grant them the unrestricted right to relicense your contributions. This means that while your contributions may originally be made to an open-source project, the organization could relicense them under proprietary terms.
This undermines the principles of open-source development and the trust of contributors.
Video Resources
To better understand the dangers of some CLA agreements, check out these informative videos:
- Never Sign A Contributor License Agreement — Brodie Robertson discusses the risks of the phrase "in any way" in Contributor License Agreements.
- Contributor License Agreements Ruin Most FOSS Projects — Brodie Robertson reviews various CLA agreements from different organizations. At the end of the video (from 8:29), he discusses the "Discourse CLA" which allows project owners to relicense contributions under any terms (including proprietary ones).
What to Look For
Be cautious when you encounter terms such as:
- "You grant [organization] the ability to use the Contributions in any way."
- "You grant [organization] ... relicenseable ... property rights."
If you see these phrases (or similar), do not contribute unless you don't care about them making your contribution closed. The alternatives may be to find a similar project or fork this one.
Examples of Such Projects
| Project Name | Repository | Link to CLA | Problem |
|---|---|---|---|
| APITable | https://github.com/apitable/apitable | https://cla-assistant.io/apitable/apitable | "in any way" |
| Audacity | https://github.com/audacity/audacity | https://www.audacityteam.org/CLA | "in any way" |
Contributing to This List
Do you know of a project that fits the criteria? Feel free to contribute!
Open a pull request with the following information:
- Project name
- Organization responsible
- A link to the CLA
- Description of the problem with the CLA
License
Never Contribute © 2024 by Petr Alexandrovich Sabanov is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
This repository and its contents are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).
You are free to:
- Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format.
- Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material.
Under the following terms:
- Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made.
- NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
- ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.
For details, visit the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license page.