doc: Update copyright policy.

README

@@ -55,17 +55,102 @@ ssh_options_set(session, SSH_OPTIONS_HOST, "localhost");
 5* Copyright policy
 -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
 
-The developers of libssh have a policy of asking for contributions to be made
+libssh is a project with distributed copyright ownership, which means we prefer
-under the personal copyright of the contributor, instead of a corporate
+the copyright on parts of libssh to be held by individuals rather than
-copyright.
+corporations if possible. There are historical legal reasons for this, but one
+of the best ways to explain it is that it’s much easier to work with
+individuals who have ownership than corporate legal departments if we ever need
+to make reasonable compromises with people using and working with libssh.
 
-There are some reasons for the establishment of this policy:
+We track the ownership of every part of libssh via git, our source code control
+system, so we know the provenance of every piece of code that is committed to
+libssh.
 
-    * Individual copyrights make copyright registration in the US a simpler
+So if possible, if you’re doing libssh changes on behalf of a company who
-      process.
+normally owns all the work you do please get them to assign personal copyright
-    * If libssh is copyrighted by individuals rather than corporations,
+ownership of your changes to you as an individual, that makes things very easy
-      decisions regarding enforcement and protection of copyright will, more
+for us to work with and avoids bringing corporate legal departments into the
-      likely, be made in the interests of the project, and not in the interests
+picture.
-      of any corporation’s shareholders.
+
-    * If we ever need to relicense a portion of the code contacting individuals
+If you can’t do this we can still accept patches from you owned by your
-      for permission to do so is much easier than contacting a company.
+employer under a standard employment contract with corporate copyright
+ownership. It just requires a simple set-up process first.
+
+We use a process very similar to the way things are done in the Linux Kernel
+community, so it should be very easy to get a sign off from your corporate
+legal department. The only changes we’ve made are to accommodate the license we
+use, which is LGPLv2 (or later) whereas the Linux kernel uses GPLv2.
+
+The process is called signing.
+
+How to sign your work
+----------------------
+
+Once you have permission to contribute to libssh from your employer, simply
+email a copy of the following text from your corporate email address to:
+
+contributing@libssh.org
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+libssh Developer's Certificate of Origin. Version 1.0
+
+By making a contribution to this project, I certify that:
+
+(a) The contribution was created in whole or in part by me and I
+    have the right to submit it under the appropriate
+    version of the GNU General Public License; or
+
+(b) The contribution is based upon previous work that, to the best of
+    my knowledge, is covered under an appropriate open source license
+    and I have the right under that license to submit that work with
+    modifications, whether created in whole or in part by me, under
+    the GNU General Public License, in the appropriate version; or
+
+(c) The contribution was provided directly to me by some other
+    person who certified (a) or (b) and I have not modified it.
+
+(d) I understand and agree that this project and the contribution are
+    public and that a record of the contribution (including all
+    metadata and personal information I submit with it, including my
+    sign-off) is maintained indefinitely and may be redistributed
+    consistent with the libssh Team's policies and the requirements of
+    the GNU GPL where they are relevant.
+
+(e) I am granting this work to this project under the terms of the
+    GNU Lesser General Public License as published by the
+    Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of
+    the License, or (at the option of the project) any later version.
+
+http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl-2.1.html
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+We will maintain a copy of that email as a record that you have the rights to
+contribute code to libssh under the required licenses whilst working for the
+company where the email came from.
+
+Then when sending in a patch via the normal mechanisms described above, add a
+line that states:
+
+
+   Signed-off-by: Random J Developer <random@developer.example.org>
+
+
+using your real name and the email address you sent the original email you used
+to send the libssh Developer’s Certificate of Origin to us (sorry, no
+pseudonyms or anonymous contributions.)
+
+That’s it! Such code can then quite happily contain changes that have copyright
+messages such as:
+
+
+   (c) Example Corporation.
+
+
+and can be merged into the libssh codebase in the same way as patches from any
+other individual. You don’t need to send in a copy of the libssh Developer’s
+Certificate of Origin for each patch, or inside each patch. Just the sign-off
+message is all that is required once we’ve received the initial email.
+
+Have fun and happy libssh hacking!
+
+The libssh Team

doc/mainpage.dox

@@ -40,20 +40,105 @@ The libssh library provides:
 
 @section main-copyright Copyright Policy
 
-The developers of libssh have a policy of asking for contributions to be made
+libssh is a project with distributed copyright ownership, which means we prefer
-under the personal copyright of the contributor, instead of a corporate
+the copyright on parts of libssh to be held by individuals rather than
-copyright.
+corporations if possible. There are historical legal reasons for this, but one
+of the best ways to explain it is that it’s much easier to work with
+individuals who have ownership than corporate legal departments if we ever need
+to make reasonable compromises with people using and working with libssh.
 
-There are some reasons for the establishment of this policy:
+We track the ownership of every part of libssh via git, our source code control
+system, so we know the provenance of every piece of code that is committed to
+libssh.
 
-    @li Individual copyrights make copyright registration in the US a simpler
+So if possible, if you’re doing libssh changes on behalf of a company who
-        process.
+normally owns all the work you do please get them to assign personal copyright
-    @li If libssh is copyrighted by individuals rather than corporations,
+ownership of your changes to you as an individual, that makes things very easy
-        decisions regarding enforcement and protection of copyright will, more
+for us to work with and avoids bringing corporate legal departments into the
-        likely, be made in the interests of the project, and not in the interests
+picture.
-        of any corporation’s shareholders.
+
-    @li If we ever need to relicense a portion of the code contacting individuals
+If you can’t do this we can still accept patches from you owned by your
-        for permission to do so is much easier than contacting a company.
+employer under a standard employment contract with corporate copyright
+ownership. It just requires a simple set-up process first.
+
+We use a process very similar to the way things are done in the Linux Kernel
+community, so it should be very easy to get a sign off from your corporate
+legal department. The only changes we’ve made are to accommodate the license we
+use, which is LGPLv2 (or later) whereas the Linux kernel uses GPLv2.
+
+The process is called signing.
+
+How to sign your work
+----------------------
+
+Once you have permission to contribute to libssh from your employer, simply
+email a copy of the following text from your corporate email address to:
+
+contributing@libssh.org
+
+@verbatim
+libssh Developer's Certificate of Origin. Version 1.0
+
+By making a contribution to this project, I certify that:
+
+(a) The contribution was created in whole or in part by me and I
+    have the right to submit it under the appropriate
+    version of the GNU General Public License; or
+
+(b) The contribution is based upon previous work that, to the best of
+    my knowledge, is covered under an appropriate open source license
+    and I have the right under that license to submit that work with
+    modifications, whether created in whole or in part by me, under
+    the GNU General Public License, in the appropriate version; or
+
+(c) The contribution was provided directly to me by some other
+    person who certified (a) or (b) and I have not modified it.
+
+(d) I understand and agree that this project and the contribution are
+    public and that a record of the contribution (including all
+    metadata and personal information I submit with it, including my
+    sign-off) is maintained indefinitely and may be redistributed
+    consistent with the libssh Team's policies and the requirements of
+    the GNU GPL where they are relevant.
+
+(e) I am granting this work to this project under the terms of the
+    GNU Lesser General Public License as published by the
+    Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of
+    the License, or (at the option of the project) any later version.
+
+http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl-2.1.html
+@endverbatim
+
+We will maintain a copy of that email as a record that you have the rights to
+contribute code to libssh under the required licenses whilst working for the
+company where the email came from.
+
+Then when sending in a patch via the normal mechanisms described above, add a
+line that states:
+
+@verbatim
+   Signed-off-by: Random J Developer <random@developer.example.org>
+@endverbatim
+
+using your real name and the email address you sent the original email you used
+to send the libssh Developer’s Certificate of Origin to us (sorry, no
+pseudonyms or anonymous contributions.)
+
+That’s it! Such code can then quite happily contain changes that have copyright
+messages such as:
+
+@verbatim
+   (c) Example Corporation.
+@endverbatim
+
+and can be merged into the libssh codebase in the same way as patches from any
+other individual. You don’t need to send in a copy of the libssh Developer’s
+Certificate of Origin for each patch, or inside each patch. Just the sign-off
+message is all that is required once we’ve received the initial email.
+
+Have fun and happy libssh hacking!
+
+The libssh Team
 
 @section main-rfc Internet standard