Contributors Agreement

1. Purpose

This agreement defines how contributions — code, documentation, designs, translations, and other creative work — to the AsteroidOS project are licensed, and how the project remains independent and community-governed regardless of who contributes.

2. Licensing of Contributions

All contributions must be licensed under the same open-source license as the receiving component of AsteroidOS (GPLv2, GPLv3, or LGPLv3 as applicable). By contributing, you grant a perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive license for your contribution to be used, modified, and redistributed under that license. Contributors must ensure they have the legal right to contribute their work, meaning no proprietary, NDA-protected, or patent-encumbered code.

3. LLM (AI)-Assisted Contributions

Contributions that were wholly or substantially generated by an AI or LLM tool must be disclosed in the pull request or submission. Contributors are responsible for verifying that LLM-generated content does not introduce third-party license obligations or reproduce protected material. The contributor, not the tool, is the author of record and accepts full responsibility for the submission.

4. No Special Privileges for Companies

Contributions from companies or their employees do not grant special control, influence, or priority over the project. All contributors participate on equal terms regardless of affiliation. No contributor or organization may demand exclusivity, priority review, or roadmap influence in exchange for contributions or resources.

5. Independence and No Obligations

AsteroidOS remains a volunteer-driven effort with no commercial obligations. Contributors participate on their own time with no expectation of compensation. Contributions are accepted on technical merit and community consensus, not corporate or organizational influence.

6. Retention of Copyright

Contributors retain copyright over their own contributions. AsteroidOS and its maintainers cannot relicense contributions under a closed-source or commercially restrictive license.

7. Technical and Legal Independence

AsteroidOS will remain technically and legally independent from any company or organization. No contributor may introduce a dependency on proprietary services, infrastructure, or APIs without community consensus. Any collaboration requiring shared external resources must include a documented exit strategy to prevent lock-in.

8. Governance and Decision-Making

The project is community-governed. No single entity may unilaterally dictate project direction, feature inclusion, or release priorities. Major decisions are discussed openly in community channels before implementation.

9. Conflict Resolution

Disputes are resolved through open community discussion. If a contributor's actions demonstrably harm the project's open nature or community health, the maintainers may suspend acceptance of their future contributions pending resolution.