[antlr-interest] submission of patches, fixes, other contributions

[Brian Smith]

I don't understand this part:

"You understand that Terence may not incorporate your submission into
the ANTLR project and you certify the following"

This part is saying that the contributor has the right to license this
to for a specific purpose (to relicense to others via the BSD
license), but he is instead going to license it to you under the
totally different license described in the second sentence (which he
has not promised that he has the right to do):

"I created this contribution in whole or in part and I have the right
to license it to Terence Parr, the primary author of the ANTLR
project, for release under the BSD license. I grant Terence Parr a
nonexclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free, worldwide license to
reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works, and otherwise use
this contribution as part of the ANTLR project, associated
documentation, books, and tools at no cost to Terence Parr or to ANTLR
users."

I think that you should just remove the second sentence. Also, *which*
version of the BSD license are you referring to? I think it would be
better to include the license right there on the page, so the
contributor knows what he is agreeing to.

If clause three is really important then I recommend finding an
existing license with such an indemnity clause in it, and using that
license instead of BSD. If I use ANTLR in my projects, then are you
going to imdemnify me for any wrongdoing on your part? I doubt it. So,
why should I imdemnify you? This clause is scary enough that I would
probably never contribute any code using this form (because, if
nothing else, I don't have enough legal knowledge to know exactly what
I would be agreeing to here).

- Brian (contributor to ANTLR 2.7.x)



On 5/29/05, Terence Parr <parrt at cs.usfca.edu> wrote:
> Howdy,
> 
> In the old days, public domain was the most generous license to use
> for software.  Oddly enough, now it's not good at all.  I think a
> large company with 3 letters in their name has emailed me like 4
> times from different groups asking if I have a certification from
> every contributor of patches over the last 15 years that they had the
> right to submit the patch and that they granted me a license etc...
> You get the picture.  Basically, nobody wants to use software anymore
> that could include stolen work etc...
> 
> Going forward, I must ask that people submit everything through the
> website, which will track everything and have a "contributor's
> license" agreement etc...  It just asks that you certify you created
> whatever you're sending in and give me license to do whatever I want
> with it.  Here is my tentative language (in the box at the bottom):
> 
> http://www.antlr.org/misc/feedback
> 
> Comments on the language and/or issues?
> 
> Terence
> --
> CS Professor & Grad Director, University of San Francisco
> Creator, ANTLR Parser Generator, http://www.antlr.org
> Cofounder, http://www.jguru.com
> 
>