Vendor Obligation to Provide Source Code for OSS Software

Anna Maltseva

If you are distributing your plugin as open-source software on JetBrains Marketplace, it is your obligation to provide a valid source code link.

Why is providing the source code important?

TL;DR: Providing access to the source code is a legal requirement.

One of the defining characteristics of open-source software is that its source code is made freely available to users. It is also in your best interest to take care of this. A license agreement protects your intellectual property and establishes the rights of all parties involved with the software, including the author, end users, and other developers.

Providing a license is mandatory to publish a plugin on JetBrains Marketplace. Please refer to the JetBrains Plugin Marketplace Developer Agreement (10. Licensing to Customers). Therefore, plugins under an OSS license without a valid link to the source code may be removed from JetBrains Marketplace.

What should I do to comply?

To help you comply with this requirement, we have made it mandatory to fill in the Source Code field when uploading a plugin licensed under an open-source agreement. You will never miss it by accident.

Please also make sure that your current JetBrains Marketplace plugins distributed as OSS software have a valid source code link provided. To do so, please check the General Information section of the plugin admin panel.

If you’re unsure which OSS license to choose for your plugin, we’ve prepared a short guide specifically for plugin developers to help navigate through the different types of open-source licenses.

Thank you for adhering to the compliance requirements!

The JetBrains Marketplace team

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