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[wip] create guide for how to sign contributor agreement #105

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# How to sign contributor agreement

So you want to join as a Root Systems contributor? Great!

## Why must I sign before contributing?

In order to practice safe and hygenic open source, Root Systems Limited is the legal [kaitiaki](http://maoridictionary.co.nz/search?keywords=kaitiaki) of the intellectual property for projects under our umbrella.

This means that in order for us to incorporate your significant contributions, we ask that you first sign an agreement that you:

- are legally able to contribute your changes (with a disclaimer from your employer, if necessary)
- are willing to assign the full copyright of your contribution to Root Systems Limited

Small changes can be accepted without a copyright disclaimer or a copyright assignment on file.

If a contributor is reluctant to sign a copyright assignment for a change, a copyright disclaimer to put the change in the public domain is acceptable as well. The copyright disclaimer form is different than an employer disclaimer form. A copyright assignment is more convenient if a contributor plans to make several separate contributions.

This is a prerequisite in order for Root Systems to best act as steward for our open source projects.

This does not mean the project loses any "open" from open source, you are still forever guaranteed the freedoms provided by the projects' licenses, including the ability to fork a project, make changes, and contribute these changes to others.

## Guide

Here's our step-by-step guide:

- TODO

## Background

- ["Open Source: Theory of Operation"](https://oss.kemitchell.com/)
- ["Producing OSS" Background on Copyright Assignment and Ownership](http://www.producingoss.com/en/copyright-assignment.html)
- [_Why does the Free Software Foundation get copyright assignments from contributors_](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/why-assign.html)
- [The Free Software Foundation on Legal Matters](https://www.gnu.org/prep/maintain/maintain.html#Legal-Matters)
- [The core Copyright documents in FSF Projects](http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/gnulib.git/tree/doc/Copyright)
- ["The Next Generation of Contributor Agreements"](http://contributoragreements.org/about.html)