If you have code that you want to contribute to the Apache OpenOffice project, then we would love to talk to you about this.

Apache projects put a strong emphasis on code pedigree and reviewing and documenting licenses and notices, more so than many other open source projects. This is done to make our projects more valuable to users, especially to other developers. This is one of the ways we add value, one of the things that makes Apache special. So please don't be offended if one of the first things we question you about is the license and the pedigree of the code.

The main requirements for contributing code to Apache OpenOffice are:

• The code must be under the Apache License 2.0 and it must be contributed by or with permission of the original author(s) of the code. Dependencies on third party libraries should be discussed on the dev list, to see how these can be brought into conformance with ASF policy.
• The code must be of sufficient quality and value to the project that our programmer (Committers) approve it, or at least don't reject it.
• We're happy to accept a small patch to fix a bug here or there, without further commitment from the code author. But the larger the contribution the greater is the need for help integrating, testing and maintaining the code. This doesn't necessarily require participation from the original author(s) of the code, though this is encouraged. But we will want to see that there is support in the community sufficient for sustaining the development of significant contributions.

Some specific scenarios:

• For small bug fixes and enhancements, contributed by the original author of the code, these are best submitted as patches attached to a Bugzilla issue
• For larger contributions, contributed by a single original author, we might ask you to submit an Individual Contributor License Agreement (ICLA) form. The copyright on your code will still belong to you, but the ICLA helps protect the users of Apache OpenOffice. All project Committers have also signed this form.
• For contributions of multi-author code, it is best to start a discussion on our dev mailing list so we can discuss the most appropriate way of processing it.
• For large codebases developed outside of Apache, especially ones created behind a corporate firewall, we typically require a Software Grant Agreement before we can accept the contribution. Again, an early discussion on our dev mailing list is recommended.

Note: It is perfectly fine for a programmer to contribute the same bug fix or feature patch to multiple open source projects. As the author you have the right to make your code available to us under the Apache License as well as to make the same code available to another project under LGPL. Similarly, if you have code that you've contributed to another project under MPL or LGPL you can also make it available to us under the Apache License, maximizing the number of people who will benefit from your work. For small patches it would be sufficient to send us a note pointing to an existing patch or VCS revision containing your contribution and stating that you wish to contribute it to us under the Apache License as well.