matrix-spec-proposals/CONTRIBUTING.md

Contributing to matrix-spec-proposals

Thank you for taking the time to contribute to Matrix!

This repository is for proposals for changes to the Matrix protocol. The process for submitting a proposal is described in this repository's README or in further detail at https://spec.matrix.org/proposals/#process.

Sign off

We ask that everybody who contributes to this project signs off their contributions, as explained below.

We follow a simple 'inbound=outbound' model for contributions: the act of submitting an 'inbound' contribution means that the contributor agrees to license their contribution under the same terms as the project's overall 'outbound' license - in our case, this is Apache Software License v2 (see LICENSE).

In order to have a concrete record that your contribution is intentional and you agree to license it under the same terms as the project's license, we've adopted the same lightweight approach used by the Linux Kernel, Docker, and many other projects: the Developer Certificate of Origin (DCO). This is a simple declaration that you wrote the contribution or otherwise have the right to contribute it to Matrix:

Developer Certificate of Origin
Version 1.1

Copyright (C) 2004, 2006 The Linux Foundation and its contributors.
660 York Street, Suite 102,
San Francisco, CA 94110 USA

Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this
license document, but changing it is not allowed.

Developer's Certificate of Origin 1.1

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 open source license
    indicated in the file; 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 same open source license (unless I am
    permitted to submit under a different license), as indicated
    in the file; or

(c) The contribution was provided directly to me by some other
    person who certified (a), (b) or (c) 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
    personal information I submit with it, including my sign-off) is
    maintained indefinitely and may be redistributed consistent with
    this project or the open source license(s) involved.

If you agree to this for your contribution, then all that's needed is to include the line in your commit or pull request comment:

Signed-off-by: Your Name <your@email.example.org>

...using your real name; unfortunately pseudonyms and anonymous contributions can't be accepted. Git makes this trivial - just use the -s flag when you do git commit, having first set user.name and user.email git configs (which you should have done anyway :)

Private sign off

If you would like to provide your legal name privately to the Matrix.org Foundation (instead of in a public commit or comment), you can do so by emailing your legal name and a link to the pull request to dco@matrix.org. It helps to include "sign off" or similar in the subject line. You will then be instructed further.

Once private sign off is complete, doing so for future contributions will not be required.