Developer Certificate Of Origin

In May 2004, the kernel development community decided to standardize on
a requirement to adhere to a Developer Certificate of Origin for
contributions to the Linux kernel.

The text of the DCO is located in the file
Documentation/SubmittingPatches
in the Linux kernel source tree.

The full text of the DCO version 1.1 (the current version as of 2011)
is:

        Developer's Certificate of Origin 1.1
        By making a contribution to this project, I certify that:
        (a) The contribution was created in whole or in part by me and I
            have the right to submit it under the open source license
            indicated in the file; or
        (b) The contribution is based upon previous work that, to the best
            of my knowledge, is covered under an appropriate open source
            license and I have the right under that license to submit that
            work with modifications, whether created in whole or in part
            by me, under the same open source license (unless I am
            permitted to submit under a different license), as indicated
            in the file; or
        (c) The contribution was provided directly to me by some other
            person who certified (a), (b) or (c) and I have not modified
            it.
        (d) I understand and agree that this project and the contribution
            are public and that a record of the contribution (including all
            personal information I submit with it, including my sign-off) is
            maintained indefinitely and may be redistributed consistent with
            this project or the open source license(s) involved.

There is a kernel thread discussing the original proposal from Linus
here (google
groups).
And here
(aimsgroup).

Here is another article describing rationale for the 1.1 version:
Clarifying the Developer’s Certificate of
Origin KernelTrap, June 14, 2005

Example

Here is an example Signed-off-by line, that indicates the submitter
accepts the DCO:

Signed-off-by: John Doe <john.doe@hisdomain.com>

Older versions

The original DCO, version 1.0, read:

    Developer's Certificate of Origin 1.0
    By making a contribution to this project, I certify that:
    (a) The contribution was created in whole or in part by me and I have the right
    to submit it under the open source license indicated in the file; or
    (b) The contribution is based upon previous work that, to the best of my knowledge,
    is covered under an appropriate open source license and I have the right under that
    license to submit that work with modifications, whether created in whole or in part
    by me, under the same open source license (unless I am permitted to submit under a
    different license), as indicated in the file; or
    (c) The contribution was provided directly to me by some other person who
    certified (a), (b) or (c) and I have not modified it.

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