This guide was generated from real Apache Incubator mailing list discussions and reflects licensing, CLA, and provenance topics that appeared during incubation.

Who This Guide Is For

This guide is intended for:

  • Podling PPMCs
  • Release managers
  • Incubator mentors
  • IPMC members

It is designed to support understanding of the kinds of licensing and provenance questions that surfaced as projects donated code, accepted contributions, and prepared releases.

Unifying Principle

Licensing issues are addressed by establishing clear provenance, confirmed contributor rights, and visibility into third-party material.

Purpose

This guide documents specific licensing and provenance topics that appeared in incubation discussions: what participants questioned, what they asked to be clarified, and what was treated as a prerequisite to moving forward.

Guidance in this document complements, but does not replace, ASF policy or Incubator policy.

1. Code Donations Are Handled Through IP Clearance

Discussion covered how existing code is donated to the ASF through IP clearance.

Topics included:

  • how an IP clearance action is initiated
  • who coordinates the clearance process
  • whether the scope of the donation was clearly defined

2. Contributor Rights and Required Paperwork Are Verified

The discussion examined whether contributors had the required rights to donate code.

Topics included:

  • whether an ICLA was required or already on file
  • whether non-committers must file an ICLA to contribute patches or PRs
  • whether a CCLA was required for corporate contributors
  • whether a software grant was needed and who could provide it

3. Provenance and Third-Party Material Are Examined Together

The clearance discussion focused on understanding what the donated codebase contained.

Topics included:

  • confirming authorship of the code
  • identifying third-party material included in the codebase
  • reviewing license headers and unusual notices
  • how third-party material was documented

These topics were treated as prerequisites to accepting a donation.

4. Category-Style Questions Are Used to Structure Review

Some discussions used category-style questions to structure provenance review.

These focused on:

  • bundled third-party content
  • license compatibility
  • correctness of headers and attributions

5. Licensing Questions Can Arise From Dependencies and Tooling

Discussion showed that licensing questions also arise outside formal IP clearance.

Topics included:

  • dependency license compatibility
  • licensing implications of build, benchmarking, or packaging tools
  • whether generated files require Apache license headers

6. IP Clearance Actions May Be Recorded Through Votes

Some donations progressed to formal IP clearance votes.

These votes were used to record acceptance of the donated code.

7. Key Takeaways for Mentors, PPMCs, and the IPMC

  • Treat code donations as an IP clearance exercise, not a simple code import.
  • Verify contributor rights and required paperwork before accepting code.
  • Review provenance and third-party material together, not in isolation.
  • Use structured questions to make licensing review repeatable and complete.
  • Expect licensing questions to arise from dependencies, tools, and generated files.
  • Use formal votes to record the outcome of IP clearance actions.
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