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Product News & Updates

Why Oro Implemented a New Developer Contribution Process

December 28, 2015 | msarandi

Recently, Oro implemented a new Contributor License Agreement (CLA) which may have frustrated some of our community members. While this might seem like just another unnecessary step that could limit developers, we are publishing this blog to make sure our community clearly understands our thoughts and intentions behind this newly implemented process.

 

Why we did it?

The Oro Community is very important to us and we value the immense contribution our community members have made. Our product codes and updates will always be available on GitHub for the community to view, comment on, and use. The goal of this new process is not to cause any bottlenecks for contributors, but rather to protect Oro from incidents that might possibly lead to significantly adverse outcomes.

The CLA allows us to mitigate multiple business risks. Although we trust our community immensely and truly believe that no one would intentionally cause harm or damage to Oro projects, we must protect ourselves from cases where the contributor and other entities could potentially file a lawsuit due to the following reasons:

  • We are using their code in a commercial product without asking for permission
  • The contributor might claim IP ownership
  • A 3rd party files a lawsuit again Oro based on the fact that a contributor used their code or parts of their code in his contribution

In such cases, Oro will be held liable and the potential legal litigation could have a considerable adverse impact on our business, and so we truly hope that you will understand the need for this process. Other very notable companies, such as Magento and Google, have implemented similar contributor processes, and thus, we were advised to do the same.

 

How the process works?

The CLA process is simple and will take only few minutes to complete. Here how it works:

  1. All the project collaborators should have received a notification about the toll from GitHub
  2. A bot will run through our database of collaborators once a developer submits a pull request
  3. If this is the first time the developer is submitting such a request, he will receive a notification prompting him to sign the agreement

The developer will be able to submit a pull request and continue with the contribution process once the agreement is signed

Open-source technology and the vibrant community around it is a huge part of Oro’s DNA. Our only goal is to protect Oro from such cases and preserve the value and contributions that our community brings to our products and company. We strongly believe in open source and invest a lot to make our products available to community. We look forward to your ongoing contributions!

The Oro Team

 

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