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They say the original repositories predate Element. But no idea on who owns them or who's being forked _from_?

If I'm not mistaken: The two projects were started by the people that founded Element. When they founded Element, they transferred the projects to the Foundation, to make them more independent. Now, they're taking them back and relicensing them with a reciprocal license (AGPLv3 + CLA) instead of a permissive one (ALv2). I assume this is about other companies using Synapse and Dendrite without contributing back, so now Element wants to be able to sell licenses for the projects, or get contributions. See https://element.io/blog/element-to-adopt-agplv3/ for more details.

The CLA isn't reciprocal. Reciprocicity is only one way when you require a CLA.

I don't think they're saying the CLA is reciprocal, that's a reference to the AGPL which requires you to share any changes you make.

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