So many open source projects enforce the Signed-off-by line in commit messages without assigning any menaing to it. I am not a laywer, but I believe such line bares no meaning unless otherwise specified (and even then it is questionable, at least).
Requring a magical incantation in commit messages is an artificial obstacle for contributing, especially for beginners. If your project does that, try to figure out if you can drop the requrement. Thanks
@hroncok this is absolutely bad advice. instead, projects should explicitly adopt the DCO, so the sign-off has meaning.
git commit --signoff automatically adds the line anyway.
@hroncok @ariadne From an individual contributor's pov, a Signed-Off-By: line is a minor annoyance. From the pov of a corporation's legal department, it is necessary if the company's going to use your contribution to an open source product.
Either that, or the company will require you to sign a CLA. Which goes directly against the spirit of free software and is a *real* impediment to developers.
I like to be paid when I write software, and I like to avoid signing anything that restricts my rights or my creative control. When a company is okay using a DCO rather than a CLA to protect itself, I'm *happy*.
And if you have the smallest modicum of interest in community-driven free software and people getting paid writing and maintaining it, you will be happy too, and make it as easy as possible for organizations to use a DCO, and ignore the negligible cost of sign-off lines.
Miro Hrončok 
Ariadne Conill 🐰
Laurent Bercot