Zachary Ware writes:
It's quite surprising to me, since all (as far as I know) PEPs are explicitly public domain. I am very much not a lawyer, though :)
The reason for any explicit CLA is CYA: you can't be sure that the contributor DTRTs, so the CLA shows that the contribution was received in good faith. (Some CLAs also include indemnification clauses, such as the contributor warrants that they own the copyright, etc, but all CLAs are useful to show good faith, which may matter big time if the contributor turns out to have a all-IP-yours-is-ours employment contract or the like.) You don't really need to be a lawyer to understand this stuff, you just need to think like a security person. https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/03/the_security_mi_1.html