April 2024 - This site, and Kamaelia are being updated. There is significant work needed, and PRs are welcome.

Sample Contributor Agreement

This agreement has been filled in as if Joe Bloggs had to fill one in. Parts in green have been filled in as if Michael had filled them in. Parts in purple have been filled in as specific to this agreement.

This also shows the expected general timeline/approach. You'd print out locally, sign, date & send to us. We'd sign, date, and send a copy back.


Contributor Agreement


This Contributor Agreement is on 12th November 2006 between The British Broadcasting Corporation, a public Corporation incorporated by Royal Charter under the laws of the United Kingdom ("the BBC") and the individual or other entity identified below ("You"):

You:
Joe Leon Bloggs

Address:

123 High Street

Hackey, London

Email:

joe.bloggs@example.com

You offer to license certain software (a "Contribution" or multiple "Contributions") to the BBC, and the BBC agrees to accept Your Contributions, under the terms of the open source licence identified below (the "Initial Licence"):

Contributor Agreement

Initial License: BSD Licence (as set out in Annex A) __________________________________________

You understand and agree that the BBC shall have, on a royalty free basis, the irrevocable and perpetual right to make and distribute copies of any Contribution, as well as to create and distribute collective works and derivative works of any Contribution, under the Initial License or under the MPL/GPL/LGPL triple licence (made up of the Mozilla Public Licence Version 1.1, the GNU Public Licence Version 2.0 and the GNU Lesser Public Licences (LGPL) Version 2.1). You shall identify each Contribution by placing the following notice in Your source code adjacent to Your valid copyright notice: "Licensed to the BBC under a Contributor Agreement: JLB"

You warrant that you are legally entitled to grant the above licence and that each of Your Contributions is Your own original work. You further warrant that to the best of Your knowledge and belief, Your Contribution(s) do not violate or infringe the rights of third parties including copyright, trade mark, trade secrets, privacy, publicity, personal or proprietary rights.

The BBC understands and agrees that You retain copyright in Your Contributions. Nothing in this Contributor Agreement shall be interpreted to prohibit You from licensing Your Contributions under different terms from the Initial License or this Contributor Agreement.

This Contributor Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and the BBC and You submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.

The BBC

Name: Michael Sparks

Signature:

Date: 14th November 2006

Title: Senior Research Engineer

The British Broadcasting Corporation,

Broadcasting House, Portland Place,

London, W1A 1AA


You

Name: Joe Leon Bloggs

Signature:

Date: 12th November 2006

Title: n/a

Annex A Initial Licence

Copyright (c) < 2006>, < Your name>
All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

...

So, What are the implications of this agreement?