[jira] [Created] (LEGAL-452) Create new Provenance FAQ?

["Henri Yandell (JIRA)" <ji...@apache.org>]

Henri Yandell created LEGAL-452:
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             Summary: Create new Provenance FAQ?
                 Key: LEGAL-452
                 URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/LEGAL-452
             Project: Legal Discuss
          Issue Type: Task
            Reporter: Henri Yandell


The current licenses/index.html page contains a section named Provenance which attempts to explain the provenance of the pieces within Apache products. 

High level summary: I don't like the overly long categories and there are some missing pieces in the explanation, and some unnecessary explanation. 

{quote}
# Provenance # \{#provenance}

Source code (including machine-readable documentation, release notes, guides,
test cases, run books, and scripts) in Apache repositories falls into three
classifications (solely for the purpose of this discussion):
{quote}

Unnecessarily long. Could be:

    Content in Apache Software Foundation source code repositories falls into three provenance classifications: 

{quote}
#### Code developed at Apache under Apache governance, licensed to Apache by its developers under a Contributor License Agreement, distributed by Apache, and licensed to downstream users under the Apache license

This represents most code at Apache. The code contains a standard Apache license
header which refers to the standard Apache license in the distribution.
{quote}

There's a lot of repeat here that isn't needed. Do we need the weak distributed by and licensed to pieces? (should be ASF and Apache License 2.0). It's also wrong; the code contains an ASF specific source header, rather than a standard Apache license header.

{quote}
#### Code developed elsewhere, licensed to Apache under a Software Grant Agreement, incorporated into Apache projects, distributed by Apache, and licensed to downstream users under the Apache license

This is code that is being brought into Apache for future development as part
of an Apache project. The headers on all files are changed to the standard Apache
header. Most incubator projects start as externally-developed code and the
Intellectual Property Clearance process is done as part of incubation.

Code that is originally developed elsewhere and is being brought into Apache for
future development as part of an existing project must have the Intellectual Property
Clearance process done explicitly by the PMC of the receiving project, under the
auspices of the Incubator PMC which must approve the process.
{quote}

I don't believe it always uses a Software Grant Agreement; often a CLA is used in this situation. The text itself is good though, it's explaining that sometimes code comes in larger chunks than a 'contribution' and we do some extra diligence then. It promises a bit too much in its implied statement that everything is covered by an SGA.

{quote}
#### Code developed elsewhere, received under a Category A license, incorporated into Apache projects, distributed by Apache, and licensed to downstream users under its original license

This code retains its external identity and is being incorporated into an Apache project
for convenience, to avoid referencing an external repository whose contents are not
under control of the project. The code retains its original license; and distribution as
part of the Apache project explicitly calls out the license. The code retains its original
header which refers to its own license in the distribution. If changes are made to the
code while at Apache, the standard Apache header is prepended to each changed
file. Additionally, any legally-required notices related to the code are published in the
distribution.
{quote}

Could do with a link to Category A if it's going to refer to it. Should double check we prepend rather than append (ugh on prepend - we always get irritated when folk put their source header above ours when they make a tiny change :) ).

Note that non-committer contributions are not being covered here. Those are covered by Section 5 of the Apache License 2.0. Also not covered is Category B licensing inclusion in convenience binaries. 



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