1--- 2layout: default 3title: Contributions 4nav_order: 4 5parent: Contributors 6--- 7<!-- 8© 2020 and later: Unicode, Inc. and others. 9License & terms of use: http://www.unicode.org/copyright.html 10--> 11 12# Contributions to the ICU library 13{: .no_toc } 14 15## Contents 16{: .no_toc .text-delta } 17 181. TOC 19{:toc} 20 21--- 22 23## Why Contribute? 24 25ICU is an open source library that is a de-facto industry standard for 26internationalization libraries. Our goal is to provide top of the line i18n 27support on all widely used platforms. By contributing your code to the ICU 28library, you will get the benefit of continuing improvement by the ICU team and 29the community, as well as testing and multi-platform portability. In addition, 30it saves you from having to re-merge your own additions into ICU each time you 31upgrade to a new ICU release. 32 33## Current Process 34 35See <https://icu.unicode.org/processes/contribute>. 36 37## Historical 38 39### Legal Issues ICU 1.8.1-57 40 41The following process was in place up to ICU 57, when the old ICU license was 42used. 43 44### Old Process 45 46In order for your code to be contributed, you need to assign to IBM joint 47copyright ownership in the contribution. You retain joint ownership in the 48contribution without restriction. (For the complete set of terms, please see the 49forms mentioned below.) 50 51The sections below describe two processes, for one-time and ongoing 52contributors. In either case, please complete the form(s) electronically and 53send it/them to IBM for review. After review by IBM, please print and sign the 54form(s), send it/them by mail, and send the code. The code will then be 55evaluated. 56 57Please consult a legal representative if you do not understand the implications 58of the copyright assignment. 59 60### One-Time Contributors 61 62If you would like to make a contribution only once or infrequently, please use 63the *Joint Copyright Assignment - One-time Contribution* form. 64(<https://github.com/unicode-org/icu-docs/blob/main/legal/contributions/Copyright_Assignment.rtf>). 65The contribution will be identified by a bug ID which is unique to the 66contribution and entered into the form. Therefore, please make sure that there 67is an appropriate bug (or Request For Enhancement) in the ICU bug database, or 68submit one. 69 70The code contribution will be checked into a special part of the ICU source code 71repository and evaluated. The ICU team may request updates, for example for 72better conformance with the ICU [design](../design.md) principles, 73[coding](codingguidelines.md) and testing guidelines, or performance. (See also 74the Requirements (§) above.) Such updates can be contributed without exchanging 75another form: An ICU team member commits related materials into the ICU source 76code repository using the same bug ID that was entered into the copyright 77assignment form. 78 79### Ongoing Contributors 80 81If you are interested in making frequent contributions to ICU, then the ICU 82Project Management Committee may agree to invite you as an ongoing contributor. 83Ongoing contributors may be individuals but are more typically expected to be 84companies with one or more people ("authors") writing different parts of one or 85more contributions. 86 87In this case, the relationship between the contributor and the ICU team is much 88closer: One or more authors belonging to the contributor will have commit access 89to the ICU source code repository. With this direct access come additional 90responsibilities including an understanding that the contributor will work to 91follow the technical Requirements (§) above for contributions, and agreement to 92adhere to the terms of the copyright assignment forms for all future 93contributions. 94 95The process for ongoing contributors involves two types of forms: Initially, and 96only once, an ongoing contributor submits a *Joint Copyright Assignment by 97Ongoing Contributor* form, agreeing to essentially the same terms as in the 98one-time contributor form, for all future contributions. (See the form at 99<https://github.com/unicode-org/icu-docs/blob/main/legal/contributions/Copyright_Assignment_ongoing.rtf>). 100 101The contributor must also send another form, *Addendum to Joint Copyright 102Assignment by Ongoing Contributor: Authors*, for the initial set and each 103addition of authors to ICU contributions, **before** any contributions from 104these authors are committed into the ICU source code repository. (Only new, 105additional authors need to be listed on each such form.) The contributor agrees 106to ensure that all of these authors agree to adhere to the terms of the 107associated *Joint Copyright Assignment by Ongoing Contributor Agreement*. (See 108the Authors Addendum form at 109<https://github.com/unicode-org/icu-docs/blob/main/legal/contributions/Copyright_Assignment_authors.rtf>). 110 111Some of an ongoing contributor's authors will have commit access to the ICU 112source code repository. Their committer IDs need to be established before 113completing the Authors Addendum form, so that these committer IDs can be entered 114there. (The committer IDs should be activated only after the form is received.) 115 116Committer authors commit materials directly into the appropriate parts of the 117ICU source code repository. Contributions from an ongoing contributor are 118identified by their association with the contributor's committer IDs. 119 120### Previous Contributions 121 122All previous "one-off" contributions from non-IBM sources to ICU are listed on 123the code contributions page in ICU's source code repository. The page contains 124links to the softcopies of the Joint Copyright Assignment forms. See 125<https://htmlpreview.github.io/?https://github.com/unicode-org/icu-docs/blob/main/legal/contributions/code_contributions.html> 126 127In addition, the following non-IBM companies are registered as Ongoing 128Contributors: 129 130* Apple 131* Google 132 133See the repository folder that contains the contributions page for the full set 134of softcopies of contributor agreements including one-off contributions, 135ongoing-contributor agreements and author-addendum documents to 136ongoing-contributor agreements: 137<https://github.com/unicode-org/icu-docs/tree/main/legal/contributions> 138