Intellectual Property Policy
The Commonhaus Foundation (CF) supports individual projects (each, a “Project” and together, the “Projects”).
License Selection and Usage
CF supports a wide range of open source licenses to ensure projects can choose what's best for them. We’ll check these licenses, including for any software they rely on, to make sure everything works together without legal issues.
CF projects must use an open source license approved by the Open Source Initiative (OSI) for their source code.
The CF will review Project Code Licenses and the licenses of its dependencies to ensure that all components of the project are compatible under the chosen license and do not introduce legal conflicts or restrictions that could affect the Project's or Foundation's operation.
The CF is most familiar with the following four licenses, which can simplify the review process:
Documentation and Media Files
Projects can pick appropriate licenses, including Creative Commons licenses that permit commercial use, for their non-code content like documentation and images.
A CF Project may define a "Project Documentation License" to cover all documentation, image, and audiovisual files (e.g., .txt., .rtf, .doc, .pdf, .jpg, .tif, .mp3, .wav, and some .html files) (including without limitation code that is intended as sample code if included in a documentation file). The Project Documentation License can be any OSI-approved license or a Creative Commons license (like CC BY 4.0) that permits commercial use.
Contributions
All new code contributions to any Project must be made under the Project Code License.
Contributions must be accompanied by either a Developer Certificate of Origin (DCO available at http://developercertificate.org/) or a Contributor License Agreement (CLA), as determined by the project’s technical governing body.
The DCO or CLA binds the individual contributor and, if applicable, their employer to the Project Code License.
Developers Certificate of Origin (DCO) or Contributor License Agreement (CLA)?
The DCO and CLA differ in their approach to intellectual property rights.
- A DCO is a straightforward method for contributors to confirm they have the necessary rights to submit work, typically through a declaration in the commit message.
- A CLA is a formal license agreement that grants the project very broad rights over the contributions.
While a CLA offers flexibility in managing licenses and greater control over contributions, a DCO facilitates ease of participation with a less formal mechanism for contribution.
Intellectual Property Rights
Individual contributors grant no license to their intellectual property to the Commonhaus Foundation, except under the following conditions: (a) their commitment to abide by this Policy, the applicable Project Code License(s), and the applicable Project Documentation License(s) for their contributions to any Project; and (b) any applicable Contributor License Agreement.
Implementing the IP Policy
Project leaders should ensure compliance with this policy and provide clear guidance to individual contributors.
- Use the standard website footer for member project websites to reference this and other CF Policies,
- Ensure that contribution guidelines are updated and accessible (in
CONTRIBUTING.mdfor example), and - (optionally) Maintain accurate copyright statements.
Collaborations and External Projects
Always check and follow the license rules of any external or upstream open source projects used by Foundation projects. If an upstream project uses a non-OSI license, the CF Council (CFC) can approve exceptions if needed.
Engaging with external open source projects requires awareness and respect for their licensing terms to ensure our contributions are legally compatible. This ensures projects can seamlessly integrate or collaborate with these external projects without infringing on their or the Foundation's license terms.
When collaborating with external open source projects ("Upstream Projects"), conform to all license requirements of the Upstream Projects, including dependencies leveraged by the Project. If an alternative inbound or outbound license is required for compliance with the license for an Upstream Project or is otherwise required to achieve the Commonhaus Foundation’s, or an individual Project’s, objectives, the CFC may approve the use of an alternative license for inbound or outbound contributions on an exception basis.
Copyright Statements
Using copyright statements in source code is a practice with mixed adoption.
If your project wants to add copyrights to source code, we recommend one of the following:
- Copyright <year of file creation> The XYZ Authors.
- Copyright <year of file creation> Contributors to the XYZ Project.
- Copyright <year of file creation> [a list of the original author or authors].
Updating the year after the file is created is unnecessary.
Do not alter existing copyright statements unless you have the right to do so.
Obtaining an Exemption
If this IP Policy doesn't cater to your project's needs, request special permission from the CFC.
To request an exemption, use our online form. Specific instructions will be provided based on your request.
Review of Policy
This policy will be reviewed periodically to ensure it remains relevant and effective. Amendments or changes to this policy will follow the amendment process.
For questions or clarifications on this policy, please use our online form.