ServerWatch: Enterprise Unix Roundup--Linux Looks Beyond SCO

"If SCO disappears tomorrow, the company can take satisfaction in knowing it did one good thing for Linux before fading away: The fear, uncertainty, and doubt stirred up over the provenance of pieces of the Linux kernel's source code prompted Linux creator Linus Torvalds to introduce the Developer's Certificate of Origin (DCO), a means to ensure that accusations like those from SCO are easier to refute in the future.

"The certificate is a fairly simple document in which a developer submitting source code to the Linux kernel can assert he or she either wrote the code personally, got the code from a source that allows copying because it's licensed under an open source or free software license, or got the code from someone willing to assert either of the first two points..."

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