Licensing

Our software is provided under the Apache 2.0 license, a permissive open source license. As a developer, all you need to know regarding your rights and obligations are described in this license. Before contributing, please read the license to fully understand all the terms.

Apache 2.0 Summary

With Apache 2.0 license, a developer can do what they like with the software; however, the required notices must be included in the code. In the following list we describe succinctly some of the modalities regarding the license. Beware that this is only a short summary of the license. You should read the full text to fully capture it.

With Apache 2.0. a developer can…

Use the software for commercial purposes
Modify the software and create derivatives
Distribute the original or modified software
Use or modify the software freely without distributing it

With Apache 2.0. a developer can’t…

Hold the software owners liable for eventual charges derived from any damages
Use any contributors’ names, trademarks, or logos

With Apaches 2.0 a developer must…

Include a copy of the license, copyright, and any NOTICE file notice with the software to be distributed
Indicate that changes were made to the code

License and Copyright Notice

Any file contributed to this project must start with an header comment with the following information:

a copyright notice similar to the following:

Copyright (c)  <project-name> and contributors. All rights reserved.

the SDPX identifier that tags the Apache 2.0 license, as shown below.

SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0

In the end, this header should be added as a comment on the top of each individual file, according to the programming language in which the file is written. In the C language, the header would look like the example below.

/**
 * SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
 * Copyright (c) Bao Project and Contributors. All rights reserved.
 */

Developer Certification of Origin (DCO)

To guarantee authors have all the necessary rights/permissions over the contributed artifacts and therefore do not incur in any license or legal violations, we require that every commit author adheres to a DCO. The contributors’ agreement to the DCO must be attested to in every commit message by simply appending a Signed-off-by statement for each author.

Developer Certificate of Origin Version 1.1

Copyright (C) 2004, 2006 The Linux Foundation and its contributors.

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.

The process to sign-off the commit message is described step-by-step in the commit sign-off section of the Contributing guides. Please consult the full guide if you are planning to contribute to the project.