That cla was too unclear anyway. What is a contribution. And I don't consider it retroactive anyway. That would stand in court I reckon.
It's not unclear, a contribution is defined, and it is retroactive, and I think it will stand in court - by their definitions, too.
Let me quote the relevant points.
You accept and agree to the following terms and conditions for Your
present and future Contributions submitted to Simple Machines
There's your retroactive definition covered - it's a licence for *present* as in already given, as well as future, contributions.
"Contribution" shall mean any original work of authorship,
including any modifications or additions to an existing work, that
is intentionally submitted by You to Simple Machines for inclusion
in, or documentation of, any of the products owned or managed by
Simple Machines (the "Work"). For the purposes of this definition,
"submitted" means any form of electronic, verbal, or written
communication sent to Simple Machines or its representatives,
including but not limited to communication on electronic mailing
lists, source code control systems, and issue tracking systems that
are managed by, or on behalf of, Simple Machines for the purpose of
discussing and improving the Work, but excluding communication that
is conspicuously marked or otherwise designated in writing by You
as "Not a Contribution."
A post is legally an original work of authorship, as is a mod (and Aeva certainly fits both original work of authorship, plus a modification to an existing work, i.e. SMF)
The mod licence covers how 'inclusion in' works with respect to dev rights over mods, and your posts are covered under 'documentation of' the products.
Submission being electronic communication on electronic mailing lists (which includes a forum), source code control systems (anything you put in SVN, even if it was reverted), and issue tracking systems (any bug report). Note that it is including but *not limited to* these things, and that can be stretched without too much effort to include anything you ever posted including Aeva on sm.org.
but excluding communication that
is conspicuously marked or otherwise designated in writing by You
as "Not a Contribution."
Here's where the get-out clause would be, except that I don't think you can 'take it back' once submitted, unless it was defined as 'not a contribution' at the time of posting, or at the point of signing the CLA. I had to make it clear on arantormods for example that none of the mods published were to be considered Contributions just to cover myself.
Grant of Copyright License. Subject to the terms and conditions of
this Agreement, You hereby grant to Simple Machines and to
recipients of software distributed by Simple Machines a perpetual,
worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable
copyright license to reproduce, prepare derivative works of,
publicly display, publicly perform, sublicense, and distribute Your
Contributions and such derivative works.
And there's where the hammer comes down. Once they have right to it, that's it, game over.