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Three equal OpenDKG cofounders — personal adoption of shared terms #3
Description
OpenDKG — three equal original cofounders: personal acceptance record
Status: revised policy PR #7 is merged. The applicable document revision is pinned below. Each of the three original cofounders must personally accept it from their own GitHub account.
OpenDKG was formed as a collaboration between three equally situated original cofounders, including @a-51-50 and two original cofounders who have not yet joined GitHub organization OpenDKG. @a-51-50 is currently the only technical GitHub Organization Owner, solely to bootstrap the organization. This does not mean sole founder, sole copyright owner, or that individual alone guarantees the project's obligations. All three have equal intended governance status from project inception; legal duties depend on valid agreements and the applicable law.
Documents proposed for simultaneous personal acceptance (v1.0, clarified before any signatures):
- Contributor Agreement v1.0, fixed revision
- Governance v1.0, fixed revision
- Founding onboarding guide
Exact agreement revision: d56279b4f3c25dd8f9e68699d61be23a0c7a6b07. Applies to present and future repositories owned by OpenDKG. Prior work is not newly licensed merely by signing this record: separate rights-holder consent may be needed for prior contributions.
What exactly are the three cofounders accepting? — plain-language summary
Read this before posting any acceptance. This is a short explanation, not a substitute for the full Contributor Agreement and full Governance document. If anything in this summary differs from the full documents, the full documents control.
| Subject | Practical meaning |
|---|---|
| Equal founding status | OpenDKG is intended to have three equal original cofounders from inception, regardless of who created the GitHub organization or who accepts the invitation first. Each must personally accept the relevant exact version; none is bound merely by being named. |
| How decisions are made | The council follows the Governance approval rules. Many important decisions require two of the three, with stronger safeguards for some sensitive actions. An ordinary PR generally requires independent review. GitHub Organization Owners can technically exercise powers beyond the voluntary voting rules. |
| What is licensed | Each person keeps copyright in their own original work. For contributions they intentionally and lawfully submit to a covered Apache-2.0 project, they permit others to use that contribution under Apache-2.0, including the license's relevant patent terms. This is not an assignment of copyright, trademarks, domains, wallets, or personal assets. |
| Can permissions be withdrawn? | Leaving the team does not revoke already validly granted open-source permissions. Someone may still keep and reuse their own copyrighted material subject to applicable rights and licenses. Material contributed earlier is not automatically included without separate, identified authorization. |
| Which repositories? | Present and future repositories owned by OpenDKG, subject to each repository's actual license and specific exceptions. Contributions under a non-Apache license need separate affirmative approval for that license. |
| Work and responsibility | No founder promises unlimited free work, a salary, or continuous support merely by accepting these documents. The documents do not create a company, automatically make all three personally liable for each other's acts, or guarantee any liability protection. Actual legal obligations depend on actions, agreements, and applicable law. |
| Permissions and newcomers | The first GitHub Organization Owner is a temporary technical custodian, not a superior founder. Administrative permissions for the other cofounders must be explicitly granted; later contributors do not automatically become cofounders or administrators. |
| Future policy changes | Material changes to the Contributor Agreement require new explicit acceptance before new terms can be relied on for that contributor. Earlier valid licenses remain in force. |
In short: each cofounder confirms equal participation under the stated decision process, accepts the contribution/license rules for their own authorized work, and agrees to the applicable organizational procedures. Signing does not mean giving up ownership of all your code, assuming all debts of the others, or automatically receiving GitHub Owner access. Read both pinned documents completely and seek appropriate legal advice if there are unanswered questions before accepting.
Each of the three original cofounders must personally confirm
The organization does not need to invite you first: all three can post their own comments here from their existing GitHub accounts because OpenDKG/.github is public.
After PR #7 is merged, if you have read and agree to the pinned documents, post this statement from your own account:
I confirm that I am one of the three original equal cofounders of OpenDKG. I have read and affirmatively accept OpenDKG Contributor Agreement v1.0 and Governance v1.0 at commit
d56279b4f3c25dd8f9e68699d61be23a0c7a6b07. I accept the scope covering present and future OpenDKG repositories. I understand that the sequence of GitHub invitations does not give one cofounder superior status; my agreement does not transfer third-party assets or automatically allocate or eliminate personal legal liability. I consent to this public GitHub acceptance record under my own account. I understand prior code is not retroactively licensed without required permission.
Do not post for another person. Existing GitHub membership or merging a PR is not an acceptance. Never post legal names, private contact information, identity documents, passwords, tokens or recovery codes here.
Automatic completion after all three personal acceptances
A reviewed PR #8 introduces an automation to check three specific original founder GitHub accounts against the personal declarations below. It will only close this Issue when the designated three accounts have each published the same exact policy-revision acceptance. The system will record the links and an evidence summary before closing. It does not grant GitHub roles or invite members.
The other original founder accounts have been identified: dreddster and brxtrac. Their account roster is proposed in PR #9. Until PR #9 is merged, the roster remains incomplete and automatic closure is disabled. Neither person has yet accepted the agreement by simply being named here. The existing valid acceptance by @a-51-50 is already recorded.
An issue comment can still be edited or deleted; the automation is designed to reopen a previously completed Issue if a required current acceptance later disappears. This is evidence management, not an undeletable legal signature.
How initial access is granted
After each of the two original cofounders has personally accepted, @a-51-50 can invite them to OpenDKG as Members while the setup is completed. Once all three have accepted this exact revision, link the three individual comment permalinks here to record the founder roster and separately confirm the intended administrative access: Organization Owner gives full organization control, whereas Repository Admin is limited to particular repositories. Technical access changes are manual; the consent bot does not invite or promote anyone.
The regular Membership Agreement Issue Form is for later ordinary contributors, not the original three cofounders. Their admission remains separate from the founding record.
A prior comment on this issue refers to the superseded version. It is retained as historical evidence and does not count as personal acceptance of the revised policy. Each original cofounder must independently read and accept the new pinned revision after PR #7 merges.
Do not declare the full founder council adopted before all three personal acceptances. If the governing text changes materially before acceptance, update the exact revision and obtain fresh agreement.
Activity
[-]Founders: review and explicitly adopt OpenDKG agreements v1.0[/-][+]Three equal OpenDKG cofounders — personal adoption of shared terms[/+]a-51-50 commentedon Nov 5, 2026
I confirm that I am one of the three original equal cofounders of OpenDKG. I have read and affirmatively accept OpenDKG Contributor Agreement v1.0 and Governance v1.0 at commit d56279b. I accept the scope covering present and future OpenDKG repositories. I understand that the sequence of GitHub invitations does not give one cofounder superior status; my agreement does not transfer third-party assets or automatically allocate or eliminate personal legal liability. I consent to this public GitHub acceptance record under my own account. I understand prior code is not retroactively licensed without required permission.
brxtrac commentedon Nov 5, 2026
I confirm that I am one of the three original equal cofounders of OpenDKG. I have read and affirmatively accept OpenDKG Contributor Agreement v1.0 and Governance v1.0 at commit d56279b. I accept the scope covering present and future OpenDKG repositories. I understand that the sequence of GitHub invitations does not give one cofounder superior status; my agreement does not transfer third-party assets or automatically allocate or eliminate personal legal liability. I consent to this public GitHub acceptance record under my own account. I understand prior code is not retroactively licensed without required permission.
dreddster commentedon Nov 5, 2026
I confirm that I am one of the three original equal cofounders of OpenDKG. I have read and affirmatively accept OpenDKG Contributor Agreement v1.0 and Governance v1.0 at commit
d56279b4f3c25dd8f9e68699d61be23a0c7a6b07. I accept the scope covering present and future OpenDKG repositories. I understand that the sequence of GitHub invitations does not give one cofounder superior status; my agreement does not transfer third-party assets or automatically allocate or eliminate personal legal liability. I consent to this public GitHub acceptance record under my own account. I understand prior code is not retroactively licensed without required permission.github-actions commentedon Nov 5, 2026
Three original cofounders — adoption verified
The three accounts recorded in the checked-in founder roster each publicly posted the prescribed statement accepting Contributor Agreement v1.0 and Governance v1.0 at the same immutable revision.
Limitations: The record verifies GitHub accounts and currently visible text, not civil identity, an uneditable qualified e-signature, a registered business, or an automatic assignment of copyrights. Repository access must still be granted separately by a GitHub organization owner. Historic open-source grants remain governed by their licenses.