I find it kind of odd and off putting that Adobe makes you sign something to contribute to the project. I think the only proper way to do switches is by using checkboxes and CSS transformations [0] - their javascript solution is not desirable.[0] http://www.larentis.eu/switch/
mindcrime|12 years ago
That's pretty common in larger projects, and/or projects that have a commercial entity backing them. And there are some very good reasons for it. It helps keep the provenance and legality of the code in more of a known state, and could be important in a SCO v. IBM type case. Also, if re-licensing ever becomes desirable down the road, it's a hell of a lot easier if at least one entity or person has permission to release the entire code base under an arbitrary license. Take the Linux kernel, where it would be effectively impossible to relicense even if Linus wanted to, since the copyright ownership is spread out among gosh knows how many people, some of who nobody knows how to contact, and some of whom might not even be alive for all we know.
The FSF, ASF and other big open source organizations also typically require a CLA or a copyright assignment of some sort as well. So at least this isn't Adobe just being evil or anything. That's not to say whether they are or aren't evil, just saying that the CLA thing, in and of itself, isn't necessarily a bad thing.