I'm happy with the interpretation that CLAs are only required by committers.
The docs [1] do say this though: <quote> All contributors of ideas, code, or documentation to any Apache projects must complete, sign, and submit via email an Individual Contributor License Agreement (ICLA). The purpose of this agreement is to clearly define the terms under which intellectual property has been contributed to the ASF and thereby allow us to defend the project should there be a legal dispute regarding the software. An individual must have submitted a signed ICLA to the ASF before we give them commit rights to any ASF project. </quote> The 2nd paragraph tallies with the interpretation of only committers needing CLAs. The 1st paragraph in isolation would seem to mean that anyone contributing to an ASF project needs a CLA. Would it be possible to adjust the 1st paragraph to reduce the ambiguity? The contributor of the code or documentation is the copyright holder and the fact that the code is committed by someone who has signed a CLA does not alter this. [1] https://www.apache.org/licenses/contributor-agreements.html#clas On Mon, 30 Jun 2025 at 22:57, Justin Mclean <jus...@classsoftware.com> wrote: > > Hi, > > > I don't think that it is usually necessary to ask contributors to file an > > ICLA in order to send a patch. > > Correct, it is not required, as someone who has signed an ICLA (i.e a > committer) will merge the patch. > > > If I understand correctly such ICLA is required only for new committers and > > in case of some large contribution, > > That is correct. > > > like when a company donates some code > > and then they need to ensure that all of the previous contributors to that > > code base agree with the ASLv2 licence terms. > > Companies typically use a software grant to accomplish this, but ICLAs/CCLAs > may also be required. > > Kind Regards, > Justin > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: general-unsubscr...@incubator.apache.org > For additional commands, e-mail: general-h...@incubator.apache.org > --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: general-unsubscr...@incubator.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: general-h...@incubator.apache.org
