1. Requirements

1.1 Notes

NPR 7150.2, NASA Software Engineering Requirements, does not include any notes for this requirement.

1.2 History

2. Rationale

NASA needs to have the appropriate software rights in place to be able to share software internal to NASA. The only way to determine if NASA has the proper ownership rights is to have and maintain a list of all contributors to the software product.

3. Guidance

The Civil Servant Technical Point of Contact for the software product) should:

a. Keep a list of all contributors to the software product. 

b. Ensure that the software product contains appropriate disclaimer and indemnification provisions (e.g., in a “README” file) stating that the software may be subject to U.S. export control restrictions, and it is provided “as is” without any warranty, express or implied, and that the recipient waives any claims against, and indemnifies and holds harmless, NASA and its contractors and subcontractors.

This requirement applies to all NASA centers and all software classifications.

The only way to determine if we have the proper ownership rights is to have and maintain a list of all contributors to the software product.

Maintain a list of all contributors to a software component or software product. Make sure that you also know if the software component or software product uses and contains any commercial software components or any open source software components.

Add the following statement in the comment area for the source code or read me file: “the software may be subject to U.S. export control restrictions, and it is provided “as is” without any warranty, express or implied, and that the recipient waives any claims against, and indemnifies and holds harmless, NASA and its contractors and subcontractors.”

If you are not sure, contact your Center’s Legal office.

If the software was developed by NASA Civil servants and software does not include any open source or commercial software, you can share the software. If a contractor helped develop the software, then contact your legal office about the rights to the software.

You also have to ensure that you addressed Proprietary rights, usage rights, ownership, warranty, licensing rights, and transfer rights have been addressed for the software components being shared. (see SWE-027).

We need to avoid software license issues associated with sharing software to need to make sure that you have clear rights in the software, a Government purpose license, or other appropriate license or permission from third party owners before providing the software for internal NASA software sharing or reuse.

4. Small Projects

This requirement applies to all NASA centers and all software classifications.

5. Resources

5.1 References

5.2 Tools

6. Lessons Learned

6.1 NASA Lessons Learned

No Lessons Learned have currently been identified for this requirement.

6.2 Other Lessons Learned

No other Lessons Learned have currently been identified for this requirement.