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Comment by shuzchen | Hacker News Reader

I don't know of any large open source project that doesn't require a CLA. As the post suggests, perhaps one day there'll be a Golang Foundation, which would otherwise have ownership of whatever code you contribute. See that Python has a CLA that gives the PSF ownership of your code: https://www.python.org/psf/contrib/contrib-form/

Even the linux kernel has a CLA, they just call it by another name (Developer Certificate of Origin)

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Ruby, Ruby on Rails, and Rust are three large open source projects that do not require a CLA. That said, I do think you're correct that these days, it's in the minority.

Node had a CLA, but it was removed in 2014. It does have a "Certificate of Origin", which you claim is the same as a CLA, but I beg to differ. The issue here is that CLAs generally require you to reassign copyright; the Certificate of Origin does not. That's the part of CLAs that the OP is taking issue with.

> Even the linux kernel has a CLA, they just call it by another name (Developer Certificate of Origin)

Who is the single beneficiary of special rights granted under the DCO? CLAs provide a single party with rights nobody else has.

There is a world of difference between a CLA that gives your code to a for profit entity and one that gives it to a foundation that (at least in theory) only cares about the health of the language/community.

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