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>> law, technology, and the space between

All content by Kyle E. Mitchell, who is not your lawyer.

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Single CLAtaking back contributor licensing for developers

Contributor license agreements are a very good idea. They’ve just been implemented badly. Single CLA shows how to do CLAs open style. Not BigCo HR department style.

Fork the repository to your GitHub or GitLab account. Read the terms. Sign by typing your name at the bottom. Commit, push, and you’re done. Single CLA covers any pull requests you make to public projects on the same website. A simple shell script verifies that you have signed, and what version:

$ ./verify github kemitchell
GitHub user kemitchell has signed Single CLA version 1.0.2.

Putting MIT or GPL in a new public repo is easy. Copy, commit, and push. Why does licensing code for other people’s repos, especially particularly responsible people’s repos, feel like day one at a bad new job? “Here, sign these eye watering legal terms nobody understands.” It’s no wonder devs have rebelled, veering off toward the opposite extreme, at the expense of not actually getting done what CLAs exist to do. We can have an in-band, coder friendly process and get the legal job done.

We have seen some CLA streamlining in the last few years, but mostly with tools and services that slightly optimize Business As Usual. Sign our CLA, but do it online, as a PDF, instead of mailing paper. Police each new PR to make sure we’ve got a PDF from everyone, but use this bot to stay on top of it. We’re not reengineering the craggy, inefficient process. We’re reinforcing it—and dignifying it—with a who’s who of back-office business SaaS and automation. We’re filling digital filing cabinets with digital squiggle signatures in digital documents with print pagination. We’re reenacting 1930s office culture online.

If I can authenticate as kemitchell to push LICENSE files and open pull requests, I can authenticate as kemitchell to specify license terms for my contributions from the same account. If we can write a standard, understandable CLA, we can make that CLA cover all pull requests, rather than making and signing a new, redundant copy for every project.

If Single CLA appeals to you, try it out and let me know your thoughts.

If something’s unclear in the terms, open an issue or a pull request.

If the README for the repo could be improved, let’s do it.

If you can think of a good logo, drop me a line.

If you’d like to get the Single CLA approved for your project, or by your institution, let me know. I’ll be happy to help.

We can take this process back from pre-Internet bureaucracy. We can make it a hackable part of how open gets done.

Your thoughts and feedback are always welcome by e-mail.

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