GCHQ OSS Contributor License Agreement V1.0

Thank you for your contribution to GCHQ software projects. In order to clarify the ownership and licensing of intellectual property rights in the project and to grant licenses to the project to others, GCHQ requires that you accept the terms of this Contributor License Agreement ("Agreement"). This license is for your protection as a Contributor as well as the protection of GCHQ staff and contractor personnel, its licensees, together with users of the open source material; it does not change your rights to use your own Contributions for any other purpose.

You accept and agree to the following terms and conditions for Your present and future Contributions submitted to GCHQ. Except for license granted herein to GCHQ and recipients of software distributed by GCHQ, you reserve all right, title and interest in and to Your Contributions.

If you have not already done so, please click the link below to email your confirmation of your agreement to these terms of this contributor license.

Please read this document carefully before agreeing and keep a copy for your records.

1. Definitions

"You (or "Your") shall mean the copyright owner or legal entity authorised by the copyright owner that is making this Agreement with GCHQ. For legal entities, the entity making a Contribution and all other entities that control, are controlled by, or are under common control with that entity are considered to be a single Contributor. For the purposes of this definition, "control" means (i) the power, direct or indirect, to cause the direction or management of such entity, whether by contract or otherwise, or (ii) ownership of fifty percent (50%) or more of the outstanding shares, or (iii) beneficial ownership of such entity.

"Contribution" shall mean any original work of authorship or invention, including any modification or additions to an existing work, that is intentionally submitted by You to GCHQ for inclusion in, or documentation of, any of the open source projects owned or managed by GCHQ. For the purposes of this definition, "submitted" means any form of electronic, verbal, or written communication sent to GCHQ or its representatives, including but not limited to communication on electronic mailing lists, source code control systems and issue tracking systems that are managed by, or on behalf of GCHQ for the purpose of discussing and improving the Work, but excluding communication that is conspicuously marked or otherwise designated in writing by You as "Not a Contribution".

"the Work" shall mean any open source projects owned or managed by GCHQ, to which Contributions may be made.

2. Grant of Copyright License

Subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement, You hereby grant to GCHQ and to recipients of software distributed by GCHQ a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable copyright license to reproduce, prepare derivative works of, publicly display, publicly perform, sublicense, and distribute Your Contributions and such derivative works.

3. Grant of Patent License

Subject to the terms and condition of this Agreement, You hereby grant to GCHQ and to recipients of software distributed by GCHQ a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable (except as stated in this section) patent license to make, have made, use, offer to sell, sell, import and otherwise transfer the Work, where such license applies only to those patent claims licensable by You that are necessarily infringed by Your Contribution(s) alone or by combination of Your Contribution(s) with the Work to which such Contribution(s) was submitted. If any entity institutes patent litigation against You or any other entity (including a cross-claim or counterclaim in a lawsuit) alleging that your Contribution, or the Work to which you have contributed, constitutes direct or contributory patent infringement, then any patent licenses granted to that entity under this Agreement for that Contribution of Work shall terminate as of the date such litigation is filed.

4. You represent that you are legally entitled to grant the above license. If your employer(s) has rights to intellectual property that you create that includes your Contributions, you represent that you have received permission to make Contributions on behalf of that employer and that your employer has waived such rights for Contributions to GCHQ and you will provide written confirmation of such permission of waiver, upon the Authority's reasonable request.

5. You represent that each of Your Contributions is Your original creation (see section 7 for submissions on behalf of others). You represent that Your Contribution submissions include complete details of any third-party license or other restriction (including, but not limited to, related patents and trademarks) of which you are personally aware and which are associated with any part of Your Contributions. You also represent that none of Your Contributions infringes third party intellectual property rights.

6. You are not expected to provide support for Your Contribution, except to the extent You desire to provide support. You may provide support for free, for a fee or not at all. Save as regards third party licenses or other restrictions, which shall be covered by paragraph 5, unless required by applicable law or agreed in writing, You provide Your Contributions on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied, including, without limitation, any warranties or conditions of merchantability, or fitness for a particular purpose.

7. Should You wish to submit work that is not Your original creation, You may submit it to GCHQ separately from any Contribution, identifying the complete details of its source and of any license or other restriction (including, but not limited to, related patents, trademarks and license agreements and any third party intellectual property rights utilised in any such work) of which you are personally aware, and conspicuously marking the work as:

"Not a Contribution. Third Party materials licensed pursuant to: [license name(s) here]"

(substituting the bracketed text with the appropriate license name(s)).

8. You agree to notify GCHQ of any facts or circumstances of which you become aware that would make these representations inaccurate in any respect.

9. Privacy Statement

Transmitting information over the internet is generally not completely secure, and we can't guarantee the security of your data. Any data you transmit to us is at your own risk.

We have procedures and security features in place to show appropriate due diligence in order to keep your data secure once we receive it. We ask for your name, GitHub ID and email address. Once you have agreed to these licence terms, you will be able to contribute to any future GCHQ open source software project.

We will only use the information for the purposes of GCHQ's open source software projects. We may share your personal information with other organisations if we have a legal obligation to do so, or if we have to enforce or apply our terms of use and other agreements. However, we will not share your information with any other organisation for any other purpose.

Please click here to send an email to accept the terms above.