Seriously, don't sign a CLA

Drew DeVault argues strongly against signing Contributor License Agreements (CLAs), using Sourcegraph's relicensing from Apache 2.0 to a closed-source model as a case study. CLAs typically include copyright assignment clauses that give upstream maintainers the right to relicense contributors' work under proprietary terms, effectively enabling companies to exploit open source community labor before pulling the rug. The post explains contributor rights by default (collective copyright ownership, right to fork), and recommends using copyleft licenses without CLAs as a binding promise that software will remain free. For businesses needing legal provenance, the Developer Certificate of Origin (DCO) is offered as an ethical alternative.