All code integrated into OpenSolaris by a Sun employee must contain the usual Sun copyright notice (see ???). The code will then be licensed by Sun Microsystems both as part of the OpenSolaris project and to other customers via various Solaris and other licenses. Thus, licensing is not a concern for Sun employees.

In order to contribute code to OpenSolaris, developers who are not Sun employees or contractors will need to enter into a contributor agreement. A contributor agreement assures the community that contributors have sufficient rights to the code being contributed, and that any third party intellectual property issues are disclosed. It also allows defense of OpenSolaris should there be a legal dispute regarding the software at some time in the future.

Contributors who add significant changes to an existing file or add new files may include a brief copyright notice similar to the standard Sun copyright notice. See ??? and the contributor agreement for more information.