Copyright Assignment
Preamble for Copyright Assignment
How to contribute to an open source project run by the iMatix Corporation is explained in this preface. Please sign the Copyright Assignment and Licence (CAL), as requested. To ensure that the software enjoys legal certainty, the CAL unifies copyright ownership and swiftly settles copyright disputes. This is necessary to enable copyright enforcement, licence upgrades, and software relicensing. This, in our opinion, is crucial for an open source development to succeed.
The CAL transfers ownership of your donations to iMatix Corporation (“iMatix”) and offers you the freedom to use your contributions as you see fit. To contribute many times to any iMatix open source project, you simply need to sign the CAL once.
If you use your employer’s facilities, resources, or time to develop software while employed as a programmer (even at a university), or if you have an agreement with your employer or school giving them ownership of the software you write, then iMatix requires a signed letter from your employer renouncing rights to the contributed software.
You must give us a new letter from your new employer if you have signed the CAL and your job condition changes after that.
Agreement
This non-confidential Copyright Assignment and Licence (“Agreement”) applies to all source code and related materials (the “Contribution”) that the Contributor has ever submitted and that iMatix has accepted and that are intended to be compiled or integrated with the source code for any iMatix open source product.
Hereby, Contributor and iMatix concur on the following:
To the extent permitted by applicable local laws and copyright conventions, Contributor assigns to iMatix its copyright in the Contribution
iMatix returns the contribution to the contributor and offers the contributor a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual licence to use the contribution however the contributor sees fit, including for the creation of derivative works. The rights and public rights that iMatix has obtained through this Agreement are not restricted by this licence.
Subject only to the grant back licence to Contributor described in paragraph 2, iMatix has all the rights of a copyright owner in the assigned copyrights, including the authority to enforce the copyrights, licence and distribute the Contribution, create derivative works based on the Contribution, and use, licence and distribute said derivative works in conjunction with the Contribution or as stand-alone modules.
All past copyright assignments made by Contributor to iMatix for an iMatix open source project have been superseded by this Agreement.
Upon iMatix’s request and to the extent genuinely known to Contributor, Contributor will disclose any unresolved rights or claims of rights of any person that might be in conflict with Contributor’s or iMatix’s rights in the Contribution.
Contributor hereby acknowledges that it will not utilise any patents, interface copyrights, or other intellectual property interests that it currently holds or subsequently acquires that dominate the Contribution to undermine the effect of this Agreement. The subject of the prevailing interest shall be made available to the general public and iMatix, and they are granted a licence to use it in the Contribution without charge or restriction. This licence clause will apply to Contributor as well as any assignees or other successors to the controlling interest. This licence award is non-exclusive, unrestricted, and irrevocable.
Contributor is not required to defend iMatix against any fictitious allegations of adverse ownership, but will assist iMatix in doing so.