Re:Why your next project should be public domain
by rmc on Thursday July 11, 2013 @01:32PM
(#6027573)
This is why open source projects often require a "contributor agreement" when submitting patches.
Often "contributor agreements" are only desired by (large) projects so that the large project owns the copyright on your contributions. This will allow them to change the licence at a later date (if they want). Without copyright assignment to them, they have a much harder time changing licence.
There are some cases where relicencing is good (OpenStreetMap had to change it's licence, and had to delete old contributions), and sometimes when it's bad.
Often "contributor agreements" are only desired by (large) projects so that the large project owns the copyright on your contributions. This will allow them to change the licence at a later date (if they want). Without copyright assignment to them, they have a much harder time changing licence.
There are some cases where relicencing is good (OpenStreetMap had to change it's licence, and had to delete old contributions), and sometimes when it's bad.