[LEGAL-491] Contributions from bots (Can robots sign CLAs?)

• Type: Question
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Fixed
• Assignee: Unassigned
• Reporter: Ismaël Mejía
• Created: 12/Nov/19 10:57
• Updated: 06/Mar/23 22:02
• Resolved: 15/Nov/19 22:21

Description

I am not clear if we have a recommendation on contributions ‘authored’ by bots in our projects.

With the recent popularity of bots that open PRs to solve issues like formatting or to update dependencies. This is becoming a common dev practice made easier by tools like github‘s dependabot.

I know that historically we have not allowed bots to write code into our repos which makes total sense in projects where commits happen without review, however in Commit-Then-Review based projects, this question could be worth discussion.

I suppose that legally there could still be authorship issues, do you guys have any opinion or reference to previous discussions on this subject. I don’t know if one workaround would be to make the committer responsible in such case. Or even to pass the bot authorship to some designated author who can be responsible too. Any pointers?

Issue Links

• relates to: LEGAL-631 Updating contributor guidance around AI generated code