Initial Release: January 8, 2014.
(日本語版はこちら)
This policy defines our patch acceptance policy from contributors for SoftEther VPN.
Use GitHub to send a patch
Sending a patch to us is very welcome and appreciated.
If you would like to send a patch for SoftEther VPN, please use the GitHub pull request function.
The GitHub repository URL is: https://github.com/SoftEtherVPN/SoftEtherVPN/
We afraid that we cannot accept patches by other methods, in order to keep the consistency of the source-code tree.
Who decides the patch to be accepted or not?
The SoftEther VPN Project has the authority to decide whether or not to accept the received patch into the SoftEther VPN source code tree. We do not guarantee that any patch will be accepted by us.
What kind of patch will be rejected?
We would like to accept any patches. However, we have the right to reject any patch by our discretion.
The examples of patches which will be rejected are:
- A patch which contains bugs or other issues.
- A patch which degrade the quality or the functionality of SoftEther VPN.
- A patch which obviously has a copyright violation to any third person.
- A patch which includes a function which is intentionally excluded from SoftEther VPN.
(We are so sorry. It is for our judicial limitation in Japan, concerned to the business agreement with Mitsubishi Materials for 10 years since 2004.)
Please note that if your patch is rejected by us, you can publish it on your own forked project of SoftEther VPN, because SoftEther VPN is a GPLv2 open-source project.
Treatment of copyright
As the consequence, anyone will be permitted to copy, modify or re-use your patch program under the GPLv2 license.
Acknowledgment on AUTHORS.TXT as the credit
After your patch will be commited on the source-code tree, as a token of our gratitude, your GitHub username will be added on the AUTHORS.TXT file and on the header of the related source file, at the next update of the source tree.
Contribution options for PacketiX VPN
PacketiX VPN is a VPN product which is a sibling program to SoftEther VPN. Although SoftEther VPN is free and open-source software, PacketiX VPN is a commercial and proprietary product.
PacketiX VPN is a product from SoftEther Corporation in Japan. It is sold only on Japanese and Chinese market. For details of PacketiX VPN, please see PacketiX VPN Web Site (Japanese only).
Currently, we have no plan to expand PacketiX VPN to other regions in the world. However, it might be sold to other regions in future. Please assume that "SoftEther VPN to PacketiX VPN" is something like a "MySQL Community Edition to MySQL Enterprise Edition" .
PacketiX VPN is not a GPLv2 program. However, PacketiX VPN is sharing common source-code with SoftEther VPN.
When you send us a good patch, we are very appreciate if you allow us to apply your patch into our commercial version of PacketiX VPN's source code tree.
You have two options on sending us a patch:
Contribution option (1): Allowing us to apply the same patch into PacketiX VPN.
It means that you grant us to re-use your patch for PacketiX VPN (and its descendants).
Since PacketiX VPN is a proprietary product, your patch on PacketiX VPN will be treated as non-GPL code. SoftEther Corporation (PacketiX VPN's manufacturer) may use your patch to enrich the product quality or functionality.
Contribution option (2): Disallowing us to apply the same patch into PacketiX VPN.
SoftEther Corporation will never use your patch for its commercial products.
Please note that either SoftEther Corporation or anyone can make a similar patch to your patch, not copying from your patch, but making a new patch by referring your patch, with circumventing the violation of your copyright.
If you choose the option (1), you will be rewarded as the followings:
- Your name and GitHub URL will be listed on the copyright statement of PacketiX VPN, as a contributor.
- When the product version of PacketiX VPN will be placed on the market of English-region, you will be eligible to obtain a license of the product for free of charge, licensed for your individual (personal) use.
- If SoftEther Corporation arbitrary admits that your patch occupies the "very-important" part of PacketiX VPN, for example, adding a significant improvement or a new function, then SoftEther Corporation will make additional agreements to pay you the fair amount of money for the reward. In this case, SoftEther Corporation has the arbitrary authority to determine the amount or the percentage of the paid reward.
If you choose the option (2), your code will be only copied into the SoftEther VPN GPLv2 source-code tree, but you will lose the eligibility to claim the reward on above.
Please specify your chose option, either (1) or (2), with sending us a patch. If the specified option is obscure, we will ask you which you prefer, before accepting the patch.
