Policy Statement Regarding the Contributor Agreement

Many open source projects, including the Free Software Foundation, Red Hat and OpenOffice.org require that contributors assign their copyright when they contribute code. Sun, the NetBeans project sponsor, has come up with an innovative Contributor Agreement ("CA") that allows contributors to retain their own copyright while sharing a joint copyright interest in the contributed code. This way contributors retain all the rights granted by copyright law while sharing those rights with the open source project sponsor so that the code is protected by both the dual license consisting of the Common Development and Distribution License ( CDDL) v1.0 and the GNU General Public License (GPL) v2 and copyright law.

Note: The CA replaces the Joint Copyright Assignment ("JCA") previously posted on this site. The main difference between the two agreements is that in addition to the joint copyright assignment, the CA includes a patent license to the contribution. This was added to remove any doubt about whether recipients can exercise rights in the contribution that are covered by patent law, such as the right to use, make, sell, offer to sell or import the contribution. (Unlike the copyright assignment, however, you retain sole ownership of any patents that may exist in your contribution.) In addition, the CA applies to contributions made to any product or project owned or managed by Sun, so you will not have to execute multiple CAs for different open source projects that Sun sponsors.

netbeans.org, the first open source project sponsored by Sun, was patterned after the Mozilla project which did not require copyright assignments for contributions. All Sun sponsored projects since then have required a copyright assignment similar to the one used by the Free Software Foundation. In response to community concern, Sun has been working on an innovative way to handle copyright assignment. The result was the JCA, which has been applauded by the OpenOffice.org community, and now the CA. It is our hope that the CA will be broadly adopted by the open source community as it provides flexibility for both the project sponsors and contributors.

To understand the advantage of the CA, consider the problems Mozilla is experiencing in trying to license its code base under a MPL/LGPL/GPL tri-license without the benefit of copyright assignments. See: http://www.mozilla.org/MPL/relicensing-faq.html. Recently the NetBeans project changed licenses from the SPL to the similar but simpler and more broadly compatible CDDL license. This would have been a difficult and expensive process were it not for CAs. Requiring CAs also gives netbeans.org the flexibility to make its code available under other licenses such as the MPL or the Apache Software License in order to contribute portions of the NetBeans code to those projects.

Sun chose the CDDL as the NetBeans license because it believes this license strikes a good balance of allowing both the non-profit and "for-profit" open source communities to use the NetBeans code base for their work and products. The CDDL is beneficial to the NetBeans community because it requires that users give back to the community any modifications to the NetBeans sourcefiles, if and when they choose to distribute those modifications. However, Sun recognizes that over time there may be a need to adjust the license or adapt to new licensing models as they evolve. The CA will allow netbeans.org to consider alternative licensing models for the NetBeans code base (although the code will always remain available under the CDDL as well).

The CA requirement also provides for better enforcement of the CDDL. Without copyright assignment, any court action related to the NetBeans code would require the participation of all contributors as copyright holders. The CA allows Sun to represent the NetBeans community in any enforcement action, while still allowing the community to participate at their choice as joint copyright holders.

The CA does not in any way change the rights or responsibilities of the NetBeans community under the CDDL. Sun is only requesting that you take one additional step to increase netbeans.org's flexibility, protect the NetBeans code base and make alternative licensing models possible by executing a CA for any contribution.

To complete the CA go to http://www.sun.com/software/opensource/sca.pdf . The PDF file is form-enabled, so if you are using a suitable reader you can type your details directly into the PDF. If you do not have a forms capable reader, please take care to print your details very clearly, including your email address.

For more details about the CA and how to submit it, see the Contributor Agreement FAQ.

Companies and individuals who have signed and submitted a JCA are listed at : http://www.netbeans.org/about/legal/approved-contributors.html.