Open Stack

On Fri, May 23, 2014 at 09:41:45AM -0400, Doug Hellmann wrote:
> On Fri, May 23, 2014 at 12:12 AM, Radcliffe, Mark
> <Mark.Radcliffe at dlapiper.com> wrote:

> > We have discussed this issue twice at the Legal Affairs Committee, particularly in the context of so called "trivial contributions".  Each time we considered the history of the project, the commitments of the existing participants under the CLAs,  our perception of the modest "friction" caused by the requirement to click the CLA  and the expectations of existing members about future participants providing rights under the CLA. Both times we concluded that change was not appropriate. The Legal Affairs Committee is ready to work with the community to assist the Board to understand the issues in adopting the DCO procedure for some or all contributions. The ultimate decision belongs to the Board.
> 
> It would be really useful for those of us interested in this
> discussion but without the benefit of being present for all of the
> history you refer to here to have some sort of write-up of the
> analysis the Legal Affairs Committee has done to help us understand
> the current position. Does something like that exist?

No, I would describe this as a couple of informal discussions. 

> That said, have we had any cases where people *could not* contribute
> because of the membership requirement? Perhaps some *would not*
> contribute under those terms? We've certainly had people say the
> requirement was annoying or surprising or both. Still, it doesn't seem
> like the sort of roadblock that a requirement to sign a binding legal
> agreement like the ICLA or CCLA presents to some of the potential
> contributors detailed in
> https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/OpenStackAndItsCLA#Contributor_Friction.
> AFAICT, the two issues both cause friction for new contributors, but
> are otherwise unrelated.

Yes, though to join the Foundation as an Individual member you have to
enter into a binding agreement as well, so, currently, to become a new
OpenStack contributor you have to individually enter into two
different legal agreements as well as potentially get someone with
signing authority in your company to sign a third agreement.

- Richard