Contributions on behalf of employer

[VladCananau]

1. When submitting a PR, how can I differentiate between contributions made in my own name vs. those made on behalf of my employer?

2. Is any action required from my employer in order for me to make contributions on their behalf?

I have already signed the ECA according to https://github.com/eclipse-edc/docs/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md.

Thanks!

[paullatzelsperger]

you always make contributions as an individual. that is just how Github works. However, you also have to add license headers to new files, or edit license headers in existing files, respectively. There are numerous examples of that across the code base.

Typically, companies retain the copyright to everything you contribute while "on the clock", that means the license header contains your employer, and not yourself.
When contributing "on your own dime", you can do that using your personal information.

What matters is the license header, so be sure to have it correct.

In practice, we've seen people using two GH accounts: one for their personal contributions using their personal email address, one for their employer using their work email address. You'll have to sign the ECA twice then, obviously, and I don't know how that would pan out in case of a copyright dispute.

I can't say whether your employer requires any preliminary screening of contributions, or if the ECA violates any company policy.

Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer, this is not legal advice