docs: adopt the no-CLA plus DCO policy and fix copyright terms

Brings the server in line with the contribution and copyright policy
already adopted in pgsty/mc.

Copyright terms were derived from the clock: startupBanner overwrote the
ldflags-injected CopyrightYear with time.Now().Year() and printed it as
the end of MinIO, Inc.'s term, so every January would have extended the
upstream copyright claim past the 2025 end of upstream development, and
release builds silently discarded the injected year. Both banners now
credit MinIO, Inc. for 2015-2025 and PGSTY from 2025 through the
release-stamped year, falling back to the current year in source builds.
NOTICE names PGSTY as the holder of the fork's modifications, matching
the banners and the packaging vendor field.

Contributions are accepted inbound=outbound under AGPL-3.0-or-later with
no CLA - the core is Copyright MinIO, Inc., so the combined work can
never be relicensed and a CLA would buy nothing. What a fork carrying a
downstream delta does need is provenance, so DCO 1.1 sign-off is now
mandatory and enforced by a workflow that rejects unsigned non-bot
commits. CONTRIBUTING documents sign-off, repair, cherry-pick provenance,
dual copyright headers, trailer preservation across squash merges, and
that assistive-tooling trailers carry no authorship or copyright claim.

verify-rebrand.sh pins the copyright split and the policy files so
neither can regress.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Signed-off-by: Feng Ruohang <rh@vonng.com>

.github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md

@@ -1,8 +1,13 @@
-## Contribution License
+## Contribution Licensing (no CLA, inbound=outbound, DCO required)
 
-By submitting this pull request, I represent that I have the right to contribute
+This project does not use a CLA; contributions are accepted inbound=outbound.
-the changes and agree that they are distributed under this repository's
+By submitting this pull request I represent that I have the right to contribute
-[GNU Affero General Public License v3.0](../LICENSE).
+the changes, which are licensed under this repository's
+[GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 or later](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.html)
+and remain my copyright. Every commit must carry a DCO `Signed-off-by` trailer
+(`git commit -s`) certifying the
+[Developer Certificate of Origin](https://developercertificate.org/) — see
+[CONTRIBUTING.md](https://github.com/pgsty/silo/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md).
 
 ## Description
 
@@ -26,6 +31,7 @@ routes, storage metadata, module/import paths, upgrades, or rollback. -->
 - [ ] Breaking change (fix or feature that would cause existing functionality to change)
 
 ## Checklist:
+- [ ] All commits are signed off (`git commit -s`) per the [DCO](https://developercertificate.org/)
 - [ ] Fixes a regression (If yes, please add `commit-id` or `PR #` here)
 - [ ] Unit tests added/updated
 - [ ] `make verifiers` passes

.github/workflows/dco.yml

@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+name: DCO
+
+on:
+  pull_request:
+    branches:
+      - main
+
+permissions:
+  contents: read
+
+jobs:
+  check:
+    name: Verify DCO sign-off
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v7
+        with:
+          fetch-depth: 0
+
+      # Every non-merge commit in the pull request must carry a Signed-off-by
+      # trailer matching the commit author's email, certifying the Developer
+      # Certificate of Origin 1.1 (https://developercertificate.org/).
+      # Only commits authored from a GitHub-issued bot address are exempt; a
+      # display name is attacker-controlled and must never grant the exemption.
+      - name: Check Signed-off-by trailers
+        env:
+          BASE_SHA: ${{ github.event.pull_request.base.sha }}
+          HEAD_SHA: ${{ github.event.pull_request.head.sha }}
+        run: |
+          fail=0
+          while read -r sha; do
+            author_name="$(git log -1 --format='%an' "${sha}")"
+            author_email="$(git log -1 --format='%ae' "${sha}")"
+            case "${author_email}" in
+              *"[bot]@users.noreply.github.com") continue ;;
+            esac
+            if ! git log -1 --format='%(trailers:key=Signed-off-by,valueonly)' "${sha}" |
+              grep -qiF "<${author_email}>"; then
+              echo "::error::commit ${sha} by ${author_name} <${author_email}> lacks a matching Signed-off-by trailer; sign with 'git commit -s', repair with 'git rebase --signoff'"
+              fail=1
+            fi
+          done < <(git rev-list --no-merges "${BASE_SHA}..${HEAD_SHA}")
+          exit "${fail}"

CONTRIBUTING.md

@@ -51,10 +51,11 @@ Before opening a pull request:
 
 ### Commit changes
 
-After verification, commit your changes with a concise message:
+After verification, commit your changes with a concise message and a DCO
+sign-off (see [Licensing of Contributions](#licensing-of-contributions)):
 
 ```
-git commit -am 'Fix object replication retry handling'
+git commit -s -am 'Fix object replication retry handling'
 ```
 
 ### Push to the branch
@@ -72,6 +73,60 @@ test evidence, compatibility notes, and documentation impact. Public product
 documentation is owned by the separate
 [`pgsty/silo.pgsty.com`](https://github.com/pgsty/silo.pgsty.com) repository.
 
+## Licensing of Contributions
+
+Silo is licensed under the [GNU AGPL v3.0 or later](LICENSE). Its core is
+Copyright (c) MinIO, Inc.; the combined work can never be relicensed, and this
+fork does not try to.
+
+* **No CLA.** We do not ask you to sign a Contributor License Agreement and we
+  do not take your copyright. Contributions are accepted inbound=outbound: you
+  keep the copyright to your changes and license them under the same
+  AGPL-3.0-or-later as the project itself. The maintainers receive no rights
+  beyond the project license.
+
+* **DCO sign-off required.** Every commit must carry a
+  `Signed-off-by: Your Name <you@example.com>` trailer certifying the
+  [Developer Certificate of Origin 1.1](https://developercertificate.org/) —
+  your statement that you have the right to submit the code under the project
+  license. Sign each commit with:
+
+  ```
+  git commit -s
+  ```
+
+  Forgot some? Repair your branch with `git rebase --signoff` and force-push.
+  CI rejects pull requests containing unsigned commits; the sign-off email
+  must match the commit author email. (Lowercase `-s` is the plain-text DCO
+  sign-off; cryptographic `-S`/GPG signing is welcome but independent.)
+
+* **Provenance.** Only submit code you are entitled to submit. This matters
+  more here than in most projects: Silo carries a downstream delta over an
+  upstream code base, and cherry-picks from the lineage remote or other forks
+  are routine. When relaying a patch written by someone else, preserve original
+  authorship (`git cherry-pick -x`, keep the author field and any existing
+  `Signed-off-by` trailers) and add your own sign-off as the person passing it
+  along. Never import code from a proprietary distribution.
+
+* **File headers.** Files derived from upstream keep the original MinIO
+  copyright header unchanged. New files added by this fork use the dual
+  header, followed by the standard AGPL boilerplate:
+
+  ```
+  // Copyright (c) 2015-2025 MinIO, Inc.
+  // Copyright (c) 2025-2026 PGSTY
+  ```
+
+* **Squash merges** must keep the `Signed-off-by:` trailers in the resulting
+  commit message.
+
+* **Authorship and tooling.** The human contributor is the author of the commit
+  and the sole signatory of its DCO sign-off. Attribution trailers for
+  assistive tooling (for example `Co-Authored-By:` naming an AI assistant) are
+  informational only: they record which tools were used, and do not create
+  authorship, co-authorship, or any copyright claim. Whoever signs off remains
+  responsible for the content of the commit, whatever produced it.
+
 ## FAQs
 
 ### How does Silo manage dependencies?

NOTICE

@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ separate copyright notices and license terms. Your use of the source
 code for these subcomponents is subject to the terms and conditions
 of GNU Affero General Public License 3.0.
 
-Silo Project modifications, (C) 2025-2026 The Silo Authors.
+Silo Project modifications, (C) 2025-2026 PGSTY.
 
 Silo is an independent community-maintained project incorporating MinIO
 source code. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by MinIO, Inc. Modified

README.md

@@ -223,6 +223,8 @@ Useful contributions include security and dependency updates, reproducible bug f
 
 Issues and pull requests should include the affected version, reproduction steps, impact, expected behavior, tests, and compatibility notes. Discuss large changes in an issue first.
 
+There is no CLA: contributions are accepted inbound=outbound under the project license (AGPL-3.0-or-later) and contributors keep their copyright. Every commit must be signed off (`git commit -s`) per the [Developer Certificate of Origin](https://developercertificate.org/); see [`CONTRIBUTING.md`](CONTRIBUTING.md).
+
 ## Background
 
 This project was created in response to changes in the upstream community distribution and maintenance model. The maintainer’s analysis, alternatives considered, and early maintenance record are documented below:

README_ZH.md

@@ -221,6 +221,8 @@ go build -o silo .
 
 Issue 与 Pull Request 应说明受影响版本、复现步骤、影响、预期行为、测试与兼容性说明。大型改动请先提交 Issue 讨论。
 
+本项目不要求签署 CLA：贡献按项目许可证（AGPL-3.0-or-later，inbound=outbound）接收，贡献者保留自己的版权。每个提交都必须按照 [DCO](https://developercertificate.org/) 签署（`git commit -s`），详见 [`CONTRIBUTING.md`](CONTRIBUTING.md)。
+
 ## 背景
 
 本项目源于上游社区发行与维护模式的变化。维护者对相关变化的分析、替代方案评估与早期维护记录见以下文章：

buildscripts/verify-rebrand.sh

@@ -112,6 +112,21 @@ require_text .github/workflows/release.yml "packages_checksums.txt"
 require_text .github/workflows/docker-release.yml "Attest multi-architecture image provenance"
 require_text .github/workflows/docker-release.yml "index.docker.io/pgsty/silo"
 
+# Copyright notices credit both parties with fixed terms: upstream MinIO
+# development ends at its own last year, and the fork's own term starts when
+# the fork did. Deriving the upstream end year from the clock would extend
+# MinIO's copyright term every January.
+require_text cmd/build-constants.go 'upstreamCopyrightEndYear = "2025"'
+require_text cmd/build-constants.go 'forkCopyrightStartYear = "2025"'
+require_text cmd/main.go 'upstreamCopyrightEndYear'
+reject_text cmd/main.go 'CopyrightYear = strconv.Itoa(time.Now().Year())'
+
+# Contribution policy: no CLA, inbound=outbound, DCO sign-off enforced in CI.
+require_file .github/workflows/dco.yml
+require_text .github/workflows/dco.yml "Signed-off-by"
+require_text CONTRIBUTING.md "developercertificate.org"
+require_text CONTRIBUTING.md "No CLA"
+
 for file in .github/nfpm.yml Dockerfile.goreleaser silo.service; do
 	reject_text "${file}" "/usr/bin/minio"
 	reject_text "${file}" "/usr/local/bin/minio"

cmd/build-constants.go

@@ -17,7 +17,30 @@
 
 package cmd
 
-import "runtime"
+import (
+	"runtime"
+	"strconv"
+	"time"
+)
+
+// upstreamCopyrightEndYear is the last year of upstream MinIO, Inc. development
+// this fork derives from. It is fixed: the fork's own maintenance does not
+// extend the upstream copyright term.
+const upstreamCopyrightEndYear = "2025"
+
+// forkCopyrightStartYear is the year the Silo fork began.
+const forkCopyrightStartYear = "2025"
+
+// copyrightEndYear returns the end year shown in copyright notices for the
+// fork's own modifications. Release builds inject CopyrightYear through
+// ldflags; source builds keep the "0000" placeholder, for which the current
+// year is used instead.
+func copyrightEndYear() string {
+	if CopyrightYear == "" || CopyrightYear == "0000" {
+		return strconv.Itoa(time.Now().Year())
+	}
+	return CopyrightYear
+}
 
 // DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE DIRECTLY. These are build-time constants
 // set through ‘buildscripts/gen-ldflags.go’.

cmd/main.go

@@ -25,9 +25,7 @@ import (
 	"runtime"
 	"runtime/debug"
 	"sort"
-	"strconv"
 	"strings"
-	"time"
 
 	"github.com/minio/cli"
 	"github.com/minio/minio/internal/color"
@@ -176,9 +174,8 @@ func newApp(name string) *cli.App {
 }
 
 func startupBanner(banner io.Writer) {
-	CopyrightYear = strconv.Itoa(time.Now().Year())
+	fmt.Fprintln(banner, color.Blue("Copyright:")+color.Bold(" 2015-%s MinIO, Inc.", upstreamCopyrightEndYear))
-	fmt.Fprintln(banner, color.Blue("Copyright:")+color.Bold(" 2015-%s MinIO, Inc.", CopyrightYear))
+	fmt.Fprintln(banner, color.Blue("Modifications:")+color.Bold(" Copyright %s-%s PGSTY", forkCopyrightStartYear, copyrightEndYear()))
-	fmt.Fprintln(banner, color.Blue("Modifications:")+color.Bold(" Copyright 2026 PGSTY contributors"))
 	fmt.Fprintln(banner, color.Blue("License:")+color.Bold(" "+MinioLicense))
 	fmt.Fprintln(banner, color.Blue("Version:")+color.Bold(" %s (%s %s/%s)", ReleaseTag, runtime.Version(), runtime.GOOS, runtime.GOARCH))
 }
@@ -188,8 +185,8 @@ func versionBanner(c *cli.Context) io.Reader {
 	fmt.Fprintln(banner, color.Bold("%s version %s (commit-id=%s)", c.App.Name, c.App.Version, CommitID))
 	fmt.Fprintln(banner, color.Blue("Runtime:")+color.Bold(" %s %s/%s", runtime.Version(), runtime.GOOS, runtime.GOARCH))
 	fmt.Fprintln(banner, color.Blue("License:")+color.Bold(" GNU AGPLv3 - https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.html"))
-	fmt.Fprintln(banner, color.Blue("Copyright:")+color.Bold(" 2015-%s MinIO, Inc.", CopyrightYear))
+	fmt.Fprintln(banner, color.Blue("Copyright:")+color.Bold(" 2015-%s MinIO, Inc.", upstreamCopyrightEndYear))
-	fmt.Fprintln(banner, color.Blue("Modifications:")+color.Bold(" Copyright 2026 PGSTY contributors"))
+	fmt.Fprintln(banner, color.Blue("Modifications:")+color.Bold(" Copyright %s-%s PGSTY", forkCopyrightStartYear, copyrightEndYear()))
 	fmt.Fprintln(banner, color.Blue("Source compatibility:")+color.Bold(" based on MinIO technology"))
 	return strings.NewReader(banner.String())
 }