On 02/26/2012 10:02 AM, Stefano Lattarini wrote: > > - many other projects (linux, git itself) seems to use them, and I > believe there's a reason for this (even if I've failed to find it > so far); > Here it is -- point 12 at: https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/7ada1dd6/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
To improve tracking of who did what, especially with patches that can percolate to their final resting place in the kernel through several layers of maintainers, we've introduced a "sign-off" procedure on patches that are being emailed around. The sign-off is a simple line at the end of the explanation for the patch, which certifies that you wrote it or otherwise have the right to pass it on as an open-source patch. Not sure how useful is this with the much stricter copyright policy of the FSF ... Regards, Stefano