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SciTeX Contributor License Agreement (CLA)

Version 1.0 — Effective 2026-03-12

Purpose

SciTeX is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and follows a dual-licensing model:

  • Researchers and individuals: Free forever under AGPL-3.0.
  • Enterprises and institutions: Commercial license available upon request.

To maintain the ability to offer dual licensing and ensure the long-term sustainability of the project, we ask contributors to sign this CLA before their first contribution is merged.

Agreement

By submitting a pull request or other contribution to any SciTeX repository, you agree to the following terms:

1. You retain copyright

You retain full copyright ownership of your contributions.

2. You grant a broad license to the project

You grant Yusuke Watanabe, and any successor entity operating the SciTeX project (the "Project Lead"), a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, irrevocable license to:

  • Use, reproduce, modify, and distribute your contributions.
  • Sublicense your contributions under alternative licenses, including dual-licensing for institutional and commercial use, for the purpose of sustaining the SciTeX project.

3. You confirm originality

You confirm that:

  • Your contributions are your original work.
  • You have the legal right to grant the above license.
  • Your contributions do not infringe on third-party rights.

If any portion is based on existing work, you have disclosed the source and confirmed its license is compatible with AGPL-3.0.

4. No obligation

This agreement does not create any obligation for the Project Lead to use, merge, or maintain your contributions.

How to sign

When you open your first pull request, the CLA Assistant bot will ask you to sign electronically. This is a one-time process per contributor.

Alternatively, you may sign by adding the following statement to your pull request description:

I have read and agree to the SciTeX CLA.

Why a CLA?

SciTeX aims to be free for researchers forever. A CLA ensures the project can:

  • Offer institutional/campus licenses to universities and companies.
  • Change licenses if needed to protect the community (e.g., against proprietary forks).
  • Provide legal clarity for institutions adopting SciTeX.

Revenue from commercial licensing accrues to the Project Lead and is used to sustain the SciTeX project.

This is the same approach used by MongoDB, Elasticsearch, and many other successful open-source projects with dual-licensing models.

Questions

If you have questions about this CLA, please open an issue or contact ywatanabe@scitex.ai.