[cc-community] CC-licensed terms and conditions / policies?
Tom Scott
thomas at thomasscott.net
Sat Aug 18 11:18:38 EDT 2007
Fred Benenson wrote:
> In terms of this being a "bad idea" -- I don't think it is right off the
> bat, and I think most lawyers would be inclined to agree (I know there are
> some on this list, so speak up if I'm totally maligning you..)
>
> There are obviously going to be some terms and conditions that some
> startups/groups/projects will need that others won't (think privacy vs.
> copyright of users) but in general, the terms and conditions in most legal
> contracts are considered uncopyrightable.
>
> This is due to something called the "merger doctrine" ...
Bear in mind that might not apply worldwide - I'm in Britain, and I'm
really not sure of the legal status of such things over here. Certainly
there are companies that offer boilerplate legal contracts for sale, and
I think they might take issue with anyone claiming that their products
weren't copyrighted...
> So this is all to say, that CC licensing t&cs may be a little over kill, but
> not that CC shouldn't themselves create a boilerplate for people to use, I
> think that's very useful and necessary and look forward to whatever the new
> GC comes up with.
I think this is a good enough idea to pursue, then, given the reaction
of people on this list - not just for terms and conditions, but for
standard speaker contracts, web design contracts, maybe even extending
to NDAs or such; it just seems like it would be a good resource to have
around.
Of course, something akin to the standard CC "we are not lawyers"
disclaimer would have to be at the top of every page...
With that in mind, I'm going to go ahead and start up a site to work
from. Any ideas for a name? "Open Contracts" or "Commons Law" don't
sound quite right...
-- Tom
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