Extracted from In Defense of Contributor License Agreements:

Great, so do I really need a CLA?

By far, not every project needs a CLA and the small bureaucracy overhead.

My advice is that you use a CLA for any project that meets these conditions:

  1. you expect the project to be long-lived
  2. you develop this project as part of your work
  3. you expect contributions from third-party organizations

Otherwise, use your gut feeling.

Extracted from MPL 1.1 Annotated:

We believe wholeheartedly in the benefits of open source development, but not everyone does. Some people or groups may try to take advantage of the work of open source development through claims of patent infringement. This is unfortunate, but it is also reality. We suggest that you be aware of the intellectual property implications of what you are working on to protect yourself and others from falling afoul of someone else's patent.

coreBOS CLA

We should be imposing a CLA

  • because we are serious about this and plan to be here a long time
  • because we want to protect our users and contributors
  • because we want to protect our project
  • because it is the right thing to do

Have a read at the links below.

If you have read them, there is really nothing more to say, we hope you understand our point of view and this doesn't stop you from participating.

Contact us if you have any questions or doubts.

Additional Reading

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