A Contributor License Agreement (CLA) defines the terms under which intellectual property

Intellectual property

Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...

 has been contributed to a company/project, typically software under an open source license.

Rationale

CLAs can be used to enable vendors to easily pursue legal resolution in the case of copyright disputes, or to relicense products from which contributions have been received from third parties.

Users

Companies/projects that use CLAs include:

• Apache Software Foundation
  Apache Software Foundation
  The Apache Software Foundation is a non-profit corporation to support Apache software projects, including the Apache HTTP Server. The ASF was formed from the Apache Group and incorporated in Delaware, U.S., in June 1999.The Apache Software Foundation is a decentralized community of developers...
  
  
• Canonical Ltd, the company behind Ubuntu
  Ubuntu (operating system)
  Ubuntu is a computer operating system based on the Debian Linux distribution and distributed as free and open source software. It is named after the Southern African philosophy of Ubuntu...
  
  
• Zend
  Zend
  Zend can mean:*Zend, commentaries on the Avesta, the sacred texts of the Zoroastrian religion.**In older texts, Zend can refer to the Avestan language*Salla Zend, a character in Star Wars*Zend Technologies, a PHP-focused company...
  
   for Zend Framework
  Zend Framework
  Zend Framework is an open source, object-oriented web application framework implemented in PHP 5 and licensed under the New BSD License.-Licensing:...
  
   (1.x series only)
• Django
• Node.js
  Node.js
  Node.js is a software system designed for writing highly-scalable internet applications, notably web servers.Programs are written in JavaScript, using event-driven, asynchronous I/O to minimize overhead and maximize scalability....
  
  
• Diaspora
  Diaspora (software)
  Diaspora is a free personal web server that implements a distributed social networking service. Installations of the software form nodes which make up the distributed Diaspora social network....
  
  
• Joomla

Canonical

The Canonical contributor agreement was a Contributor License Agreement

Contributor License Agreement

A Contributor License Agreement defines the terms under which intellectual property has been contributed to a company/project, typically software under an open source license.- Rationale :...

 required by Canonical Ltd for all contributions to many projects established by Canonical.

In it, the contributor assigned copyright to Canonical and at the same time Canonical gave the contributor "a world-wide, non-exclusive, royalty-free and perpetual right to use, copy, modify, communicate and make available to the public (including without limitation via the Internet) and distribute, in each case in an original or modified form, the Assigned Contributions as (they) wish."

Canonical started Project Harmony "...to assist organisations which use contribution agreements by providing standardised variable templates with clear and concise explanations..."

As of August 2011, Canonical is requesting contributions be licenced under a Harmony Contribution Licence Agreement, rather than the copyright being assigned to Canonical.

Projects requiring contributors to sign this agreement include:

• Unity
• XSplash
  XSplash
  XSplash is a software project in the Ubuntu community that uses the X Window System to replace the scrolling-text screens that appear while booting a Linux-based computer with a graphical splash screen....
  
  
• Launchpad
  Launchpad (website)
  Launchpad is a web application and website that allow users to develop and maintain software, particularly free software. Launchpad is developed and maintained by Canonical Ltd....
  
  
• Uncomplicated Firewall (ufw)
  Uncomplicated Firewall
  Uncomplicated Firewall is a firewall that is designed to be easy to use. It uses a command line interface consisting of a small number of simple commands, and uses iptables for configuration.-GUI for Uncomplicated Firewall:...
  
  
• Update Manager
  Update Manager
  Update Manager is a program that updates all installed software and their associated packages, with important software updates for security or recommended patches. It also informs users when updates are available, listing them in alphabetical orders so that users can choose which updates to...
  
  
• Ubiquity
  Ubiquity (software)
  Ubiquity is a simple Linux installer for Ubuntu and its derivatives. It runs on LiveCD and has a Qt frontend and a GTK+ frontend. Ubiquity was first introduced in Ubuntu 6.06 .-Features:* Internationalization support...
  
  
• Ubuntu One
  Ubuntu One
  Ubuntu One is a personal cloud service operated by Canonical Ltd.The service enables users to store files online and sync them between computers and mobile devices, as well as stream audio and music from cloud to mobile devices.- Features :...
  
  
• Upstart
  Upstart
  Upstart is an event-based replacement for the traditional init daemon — the method by which several Unix-like computer operating systems perform tasks when the computer is started. It was written by Scott James Remnant, a former employee of Canonical Ltd....
  
  

KDE

KDE

KDE

KDE is an international free software community producing an integrated set of cross-platform applications designed to run on Linux, FreeBSD, Microsoft Windows, Solaris and Mac OS X systems...

 uses Free Software Foundation Europe

Free Software Foundation Europe

The Free Software Foundation Europe was founded in 2001 as an official European sister organization of the U.S.-based Free Software Foundation to take care of all aspects of free software in Europe. FSF and FSFE are financially and legally separate entities.FSFE believes that access to and...

's Fiduciary Licence Agreement which states in section 3.3:

However, it is optional and every contributor is allowed not to assign his copyright to KDE e.V.

External links

• Contributor Licence Agreements from OSS Watch
  OSS Watch
  OSS Watch is the United Kingdom's advisory service for issues relating to free and open source software in the Further Education and Higher Education sectors. Since 2003 it has provided consultations and briefing materials about the legal, social, technical and economic aspects of open source...