IANAL, but my understanding is, in short you nominate a trusted third party to hold onto the source code of the seller/provider you're dealing with, to avoid th

IANAL, but my understanding is, in short you nominate a trusted third party to hold onto the source code of the seller/provider you're dealing with, to avoid the source disappearing and leaving you high and dry. This prevents the 'buyer' from accessing the IP (although I'm not sure if that applies to all cases), but gives them assurance they can still function if everything goes to pot and the selling company disappears/deletes their source etc. How its actually implemented I guess depends and I don't think there's a uniform process - CD-ROM, a git clone to them etc. Basically a legal/contractual agreement when dealing with IT vendors in (big) stakes collaborations or ventures.