contributor license agreement (CLA) (was: Upcoming project ownership changes)

[Paul Menzel]

Dear Brad,


Am 14.02.2018 um 04:53 schrieb Brad Bishop:

[…]

> I'm happy to report that these industry leaders have rallied around
> your community as the meeting point.  Very soon it will get a lot more
> busy around here.
> 
> To this end, IBM will be ceding stewardship of this project to the
> Linux Foundation in the very near future.  You can find the project
> charter here:
> 
> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uBbi5rDhWqj8Al-eoNLxERZ9OK8KVMZThOuS08-cYto

(Note, the URL is wrapped in your message.)

Thank you. Cooperating is definitely a good thing. My knowledge of the 
goals and operation of the Linux Foundation is not good enough to 
comment on that.

> Under the new charter, contributors will be required to sign a
> contributor license agreement.  There will be corporate (your company
> signs once for all future contributions originating from your company)
> and individual agreements available:
> 
> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1veiAjszrhgabA8XrJWjYCs7lyXIhs5rcXWgaeuW-bT8
> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1m61YH8GSzQpYVt5YG95fb2QNy1Gs--1-oLD3znqPNQw
> 
> Please work with your legal team (if using the corporate CLA) or sign
> the individual CLA now and send them to me to avoid any delays in your
> development work flow when the transfer occurs.

Could you please elaborate, why CLAs are needed? The Linux Kernel is 
under the umbrella of the Linux Foundation, and no CLAs are needed 
there. CLAs are a great burden, as the legal department gets involved, 
and should be avoided at all costs, as contributors want to advance 
OpenBMC and not do paperwork.


Kind regards,

Paul