A key aspect of the Python Software Foundation's mission is managing the intellectual property for the Python language. This includes the source code for the C implementation of the Python interpreter, the Python standard library, and any related tools and documentation. In order to share the source code and documentation with users of Python, the PSF needs to hold a valid license that gives us permission to do so. The licensing requirement applies to every contribution, so the PSF board is contacting all contributors to make sure they have filled out a contributor agreement.
In June 2009, Andrew Kuchling analyzed the svn repository for CPython and compared the actual contributor names with the list of people who had signed an agreement. 39% of the lines in the Python 2.7 portion of the tree were committed by developers without signed agreements. Around 31% of the lines for Python 3.1 came from unsigned contributors. Through the efforts of Andrew and other PSF members, those statistics improved to 8.5% for Python 2.7 and 9.9% for Python 3.1 by February of 2010.
Our goal is 100% coverage, so if you have contributed source code or documentation, either directly or via a patch in the issue tracker, please make sure you have submitted a form. If you are unsure of your status, you can check your issue tracker account by logging in and then clicking the "Your Details" link in the left sidebar. The account details page includes a "Contributor Form Received" field, which will show the date the form was filed. If the field says no agreement was received, please take a few minutes to fill out the contributor agreement and send it in. If you think you have already signed an agreement but the tracker does not show it, contact psf@python.org so we can check our records.
