This document serves as a non-binding simpler version of the Contributor License Agreement. Any errors in or misinterpretations of the following text have no legal effect. See doc/cla.md for the real thing that you can feed to lawyer cats.
You sign the CLA by sending an email to tox4j-cla@googlegroups.com with a copy of the agreement (markdown source, text output or html output, doesn't matter) and putting your name under it. This email is preferably signed with a certificate or PGP key. In addition, please put your name in the Contributors section of AUTHORS.md and submit it in a signed git commit along with your first pull request to our GitHub repository. If you can't sign git commits, that's fine, just send the email.
- "We" is tox4j-team (the core team in AUTHORS.md).
- "You" is you, the person who submits code to GitHub.
- "Contribution" is the code or documentation you wrote, pictures you drew, etc.
- "Copyright" is this scary thing.
- "Material" is Tox4j itself and any clients or bots we make with it.
- "Submit" is making a pull request on our GitHub repository.
- "Submission Date" is the date on which you made the PR.
- "Effective Date" is there so you can sign the CLA and it retroactively applies to past contributions you made before signing it.
(a) You keep the Copyright.
(b) We can relicense the whole project (e.g. when someone like Apple requires us to be less copy-lefty). We can not change the license of older code (it stays under whatever license it was), but we can change it for future versions. See 2.3 for what kind of licenses we can use (spoiler alert: only FOSS licenses).
If your code is patented, you need to have the right to give us a patent license, and you do that by signing the CLA. Also, if you file patents about your contribution in the future, we get a license. This is so we don't need to suddenly pay you when you realise you made something really cool and you must now make money off of it.
This section promises that we only use FSF-approved licenses. Basically, this promises that we won't make your code proprietary.
Tox4j (and Tox in general) wants to give everybody in the world privacy. Your contribution helps us achieve that goal. Everybody includes bad people, so our work will benefit them, too. This section means that if you later feel bad and don't want to help bad people anymore, and you feel that monitoring and tracking all citizens is a good thing, then you can't force us to stop and you can't revoke your contribution.
We may or may not use your contribution, that's up to us.
You keep all the rights you didn't license to us.
You confirm that:
(a) You're allowed to sign the CLA.
(b) You actually own what you give us (no cheating).
(c) If you're not allowed to sign the CLA, someone who is should do it (e.g. parents or employer).
(d) You've talked to us if you don't own the whole contribution yourself (e.g. you made it together with a friend).
You don't give us any warranties for the contribution other than the ones in section 3. So, for example you're not claiming that the code you wrote is useful or safe. Hopefully it is, but you can't be sued if it's not.
If your code is crap and people lose money or data because of it, you won't be sued.
Tox4j is legally based in Germany, so the German laws apply to this agreement. The UN (United Nations) rules don't apply, only the German ones.
There are no other agreements, only ~~ZUUL~~CLA. Things we agree on via IRC or otherwise are not legally binding.
If tox4j-team gets a new member, that person needs to promise (in writing) to follow the rules in the CLA. If you transfer Copyright to someone else, they also need to promise that.
If we break the rules and you don't sue us, that doesn't mean we get free pass to do whatever we like. If we break the rules again, you can still sue. The same applies to you breaking the rules.
If it's necessary to break the rules, we can have an external agreement for one time, but after that, the CLA rules apply again.
If the CLA is partially void because of some laws, that doesn't mean the whole agreement is void, only that part. Also, that part will be enforced as much as possible using other rules that are close to its intent.
If the CLA changes, it doesn't affect you, unless you sign the new one as well. The git history shows when you signed, so we can always tell which CLA was in effect at that time.