Clarification needed: Copyright ownership and non-compete implications of contributions (PRs) under FCL-1.0

[kaspermarstal]

The FCL-1.0 states terms for redistribution and derivatives but doesn't explicitly address copyright ownership of contributed code through PRs. As a project maintainer, I humbly ask for clarity on:

• Do contributors retain copyright of their PR code?
• If yes, how does accepting PRs interact with the non-compete clause? If a contributor works for a competing company, does accepting their PR violate the license terms?
• If yes, is a contributor suddenly allowed to compete because they own a portion of the code?

I feel this uncertainty affects how I can accept and manage contributions while maintaining license compliance.

I see that you have a CLA on your keygen website (https://keygen.sh/cla/) but I don't see how contributors are agreeing to it when making a PR. I hope you can help me understand how this works so I can confidently (and gratefully) accept PRs and build a healthy fair source project in the spirit of FCL.

[ezekg]

We use the https://cla-assistant.io bot to automate CLA enforcement. You can see it at work here on a user's first PR: keygen-sh/keygen-api#858. We don't merge a PR until the CLA is signed. But ultimately, how you do things is up to you.

As a counter example, GitButler doesn't use a CLA and is licensed under the FSL, which the FCL is based on.

[kaspermarstal]

Thank you very much for the clarification @ezekg. Appreciate it. I decided do the same as you and enabled cla-assistant.io.

[ezekg]

Cool project, btw. Looks like people like it, too. Interested to see how/if you monetize it!

[kaspermarstal]

Thank you!