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/dev/lawyer

>> law, technology, and the space between

All content by Kyle E. Mitchell, who is not your lawyer.

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  1. Plain Nonsense Trumps Jargon

    the cost of wizardspeak comes due in our time

  2. A Legal Rule That Makes Writing Worse

    moving past the fantasy of consistency

  3. Announcing Blackacre Labs

    have and belong to many readers

  4. A Published Legal Form Under Restrictive Copyright License

    Access 4 Learning’s data privacy terms for schools and vendors

  5. The Headlines Are Evil, And They’re Bringing Us Down

    what the court actually said about Trump’s tariffs

  6. The Fourth Circuit’s Opinion in the Abrego García Case

    a line-by-line reading

  7. Provisional Guidance for Users of LLM-Based Code Generators

    available intuition for avoiding big risks

  8. Open Source When We Say So

    still stronger claims of self-authority in OSI’s new AI “definition”

  9. Open Source Company as Costco

    parallels weak and strong

  10. Negotiating Bastardry

    unexpected wisdom from a motorcycle channel

  11. Llama 3 versus LLama 3.1 License Terms

    handy redline and takeaways

  12. Not The Same Security Debate

    open source security today is different in kind

  13. Pick-From-a-List Tools

    my favorite heretical UNIX programs

  14. Blue Oak Contributor License

    it’s just a license

  15. Free and Open in the Latest Draft of the EU Cyber Resilience Act

  16. Copyleft Intolerance and the Defining-Open Mind Trap

    forgetting licensing history past, we fail to repeat our successes

  17. Unlimited Indemnity for Unpaid Developers?

    James Bottomley on liability, politics, and forgotten boilerplate

  18. Support the Blue Oak License List

    fund the Web’s actionable allow-list of software licenses

  19. PolyForm Countdown

    a simple, solid form for changing your license later

  20. Toward PolyForm Shield Version 2

    streamline and revise for easier reading

  21. A Short, Simple Template for Scheduled Relicensing

    decouple license rules from how we relax them

  22. Amazon Has a Restricted License, Too

    this is not a bad thing

  23. We Were Wrong About the GPLs

    an unsurprising admission in Conservancy v. Vizio

  24. Understanding “RISC-y Business”

    trading chips progression for chips advantage

  25. Recommended Resource: CRS Congressional Court Watcher

    free briefs of new cases

  26. Two Kinds of “Relicensing”

    going-forward and retroactive

  27. Two Kinds of “Dual Licensing”

    a license operator and a business model

  28. Overloaded

    putting finer points on established fuzzy terms

  29. Real and Imagined CLA Overreach

    CLAs go wrong when they act like hiring terms

  30. Exactly the Wrong AI Copyrightability Case

    Creativity Machine guy assumed away the debate and lost

  31. HashiCorp’s New Licensing

    a new benchmark for presenting license change

  32. Where is the rule that makes vague license rules legal no-ops?

    fear, uncertainty, and doubt upon ethical licenses

  33. No Office Hours

    Internet down hard

  34. Utah Social Media Regulation Act

    two new laws on social media and children

  35. You Do Not Have a Shoe Size

    thirty-five years standing over a bad assumption

  36. On-Cloud Licensing

    the wheel of software delivery keeps on turning

  37. NVIDIA Prismer License

    another noncommercial model license, kind of

  38. Open Source Unsolved Security

    the pointy-headed corpo-types warned us

  39. Wikimedia’s Terms of Use

    thoughts from a recent review

  40. European Office Hours

    more scheduled for next month

  41. The Law Does Not Require Legalese

    a reassuring dive into contract interpretation

  42. Sneaking Things In

    yes, lawyers actually do this

  43. Open RAIL-M Is More Unclear Than Scary

    Does AI devs want to fight abuse, or just not feel bad about enabling it?

  44. Open Game License Version 1.2 Draft

    how to say “irrevocable” like you mean it when you just revoked everybody’s licenses

  45. Office Hours

    call in and ask me questions

  46. Type Error: “Democratizing”

    runaway sales speak hits the curb again

  47. Delayed Release in Investigative Reporting

    newsroom licensing strategy in familiar software terms

  48. This Rich To Open Source

    neglected Torvalds straight-talk on how great software gets made, and by who

  49. MicroHub Sponsorplace

    one software store, many corporate faces

  50. Open Market for Open Software

    coders who can’t afford to do open source will revolutionize software

  51. Notice by Hyperlink

    can’t we just link to the licenses file for our JavaScript?

  52. Waypoint NDA 4.0.0

    now with mergers and acquisitions terms

  53. Putting Software in the Public Domain

    if you want “waive” or “dedicate”, you should probably just “license”

  54. Trademark Undefined Behavior

    the awkward hole in free and open IP

  55. Thoughts on Web Footnotes

    links, notes, asides, details, and parentheticals

  56. Briefless Barristers and Lawyerless Clients

    future Supreme Court justice to young lawyers in 1939

  57. Time Off Summer ’22

    out of office August 7 through 20

  58. New Microsoft Word Comments Weirdness

    a gotcha for legal power users

  59. Legal Sources for Not-a-Lawyers

    learn some law without totally warping your brain

  60. Priest Against Priesthood

    father of FORTRAN on programming in the fifties

  61. The Work, the Tech, and the Crime

    blockchain deserves no regulatory favors

  62. Text Prudent

    what everyone should know about texting, chatting, and the law

  63. Max Korzh’s “His Home”

    a Russian-language rap translation

  64. Legal Versioning

    refined scheme for functional prose projects

  65. From Copy to Reference

    a plan to evolve legal drafting

  66. Zelensky Compound NDA

    the mystery of the ritual runs deeper than law

  67. Copy-and-Paste Goes to Russia

    lawyering by rote in the crazy 1990s

  68. EULAs Aren’t Inherently Evil

    proprietary done right can beat free and open for users

  69. HTML Scripting Tools

    a few free packages I’ve come to use

  70. The Russians Are Coming

    hire the nerds for peace, profit, and progress!

  71. FOSS Fundraiser for Ukraine?

    donors ask questions, panel of licensing lawyers answers

  72. The Open Source Initiative Did Not Win Neo4j v. PureThink

    everywhere it looks, OSI sees itself, and in triumph

  73. Getting the Most From Common Computer Filing Systems

    fundamental techniques for Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, and others

  74. Russia’s “Fake News” Law

    a quick translation

  75. Switching Open Software Terms

    yes, you can switch from MIT to something else

  76. You And Whose GitHub?

    Russian tech source reports state mulling GitHub clone

  77. What Must Be Said

    Boris Grebenshchikov in London

  78. Russia to Legalize Software Piracy

    my show is canceled, business news reports

  79. Ukraine

    donate money against this horrible war

  80. Devs Use Closed Software

    too many devs pretend otherwise

  81. Universal Basic Cop-Out

    We know how to pay devs for software. Some of us just prefer not to.

  82. Software Pay Data 2020

    data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

  83. Be the Water Boy (or Girl!) for Your Neighborhood

    East Oakland Collective’s EBMUD hydrant meter is ready for action

  84. Big Time Public License 2.0.0

    much improved by generous feedback

  85. Second Draft of Waypoint for M&A

    refining acquisition-specific terms to the standard business NDA

  86. Fast Path

    cutting-edge legal terms for software license sales

  87. MIT for Noncommercial is Broken

    use a real noncommercial software license

  88. Payability, Form, and Substance

    getting company to pay you isn’t just about a legal entity

  89. To-Do List Polling

    event-based meatspace task management

  90. Pay the Fiddler

    pithy wisdom from days of yore

  91. Square One 2e1u

    addressing an interesting Utah peculiarity

  92. AWS Contributor Licensing Blurb

    another mutation from the cauldron of CLA angst

  93. What Do We Call Functional Specs for Legal Forms?

    seeking help naming a concept

  94. Waypoint for M&A

    adding acquisition-specific terms to the standard business NDA

  95. Correlation and Causation Symbols

    good shorthand against bad mental shortcuts

  96. Single CLA

    taking back contributor licensing for developers

  97. SaaS Compliance Caveats

    view page source ain’t what it used to be

  98. Blue Oak Open Software Licensing Primer

    Theory of Operation, updated and expanded

  99. Not My Law

    explainer page for cross-border legal help

  100. Specifically Regulating Standardized Contracting

    quick thoughts on the Consumer Review Fairness Act of 2016

  101. All Heroes, No Casualties

    where are our stories of tech folks done wrong?

  102. The Kingsway Basic License

    hip hop terms through a software lens

  103. Hydrant Meter for the Homeless

    a giant step forward for East Oakland Collective and EBMUD

  104. Redlining in Microsoft Word 365

    a step-by-step guide to comparing legal drafts

  105. Square One Second Edition

    improved US hiring forms and terms

  106. GPL Had Better be a Contract

    SFC’s Vizio suit brings the right kind of claim

  107. PolyForm Commercial Does Individual Licenses Now

    expanding standardization to single-user deals

  108. Pinky Pressing Problem

    discovering and addressing a lapse in typing technique

  109. Signature Blocks 101

    what goes where and why, in brief

  110. L. Peter Deutsch and Stig Hackvän

    cooperation, licensing, and money in 1998

  111. Time Off Summer ’21

    out of office August 29 through September 8

  112. Help Fund Water for the Homeless

    legal access to public water for the East Bay’s unhoused

  113. Upgrading to Debian Bullseye

    a couple hurdles jumped

  114. Contract by E-Mail

    contract power is in your hands

  115. The Developer Certificate of Origin is Not a Contributor License Agreement

    dispelling magical DCO thinking to reveal the system below

  116. Standardize Commercial Software Licensing

    announcing PolyForm Commercial, with a call for help

  117. License Round-Up

    listing licenses I’ve contributed to

  118. Waypoint NDA 3.0.0

    small terms fixes, big presentation improvements

  119. In Praise of Cron

    seventies-era automation for the working lawyer

  120. Big Time Public License 1.0.0

    a FRAND-ly license for software

  121. Legal Explainer Sites

    one-page URLs for common concepts and conundrums

  122. 2020 Oakland Homeless Camp Fires

    data from public records request

  123. Creative Commons’ 2021-2025 Strategy

    a scene stalwart turns “ethical”

  124. The Guestbook NDA

    a standard one-way nondisclosure agreement

  125. 2020 Annual Homeless Assessment Report

    bold text from the key findings

  126. One-Way NDA

    good names for the next standard NDA?

  127. Citation Hustle

    hooking into academe for fair code credit

  128. Drafter’s Anxiety

    writing new licenses isn’t scary

  129. The Luck of Open Source

    open source without great men

  130. Legal Technology as Regulatory Arbitrage

    a countervailing force toward specialization

  131. Efficient Merit Apocalypse

    a mirror on meritocracy

  132. Sell Babel 8

    ask for the money you need so people can actually pay it

  133. Law Insider’s Contract Teardowns

    lawyers dissect specific contract language

  134. Days of Pain

    returning from a double bout of nerve pain

  135. Open Gaming Deja Vu

    a clear-eyed view of open from 1999

  136. First-Rate Intelligence

    false comfort in U.S. military spending

  137. Support Funding for Cali County Law Libraries

    they’re even more important during pandemic

  138. You Can Still Use the Software

    Justin Colannino on what’s up with new software licenses

  139. Zebra G-750 First Look

    a long-awaited pen arrives on US shores

  140. Flat Forms

    plain language should come in plain pieces

  141. Templating for Lawyers

    learn computer templateering in five minutes flat

  142. Seven Ways to Say “Inequality”

    a short study in the rhetoric of policy

  143. It’s a Trap

    avoid legal structures designed to constrain you

  144. The Origin of the “MIT License”

    how did those famous terms come about?

  145. Cross License Foundations

    decentralized stewardship of collaborative projects

  146. Code Credit License 1.0.0

    a code-for-credit software license

  147. Open Licensing Attacks on Specific Business Models

    an incomplete list

  148. Compliance Industrial Pulpit

    someone tell the enterprise about Open Source 2.0

  149. Where are the Goalposts?

    in response to Luis Villa on SSPL and OSI

  150. The Chalkeaters’ License

    effective folk licensing in the wild

  151. Waypoint Turns Two

    stop wasting time on nondisclosure agreements

  152. Platform Neutrality

    we used to have a principle for this

  153. Square One

    fair terms. free forms. back to work.

  154. Reading AGPL

    a guided introduction for first-timers

  155. Open Source is Discrimination

    that’s the point, or at least it used to be

  156. Righteous, Expedient, Wrong

    OSI swings at Elastic, misses, and leaves a mess

  157. Water Manifolds

    hydrant-based access for the homeless of the Tenderloin

  158. ml5.js Takes a Stand

    a code of conduct with teeth, in the wild

  159. We Are All Internet Realists Now

    web exceptionalism swings both ways

  160. Fake Neutrality

    have it your way ‘til they can afford to have it theirs

  161. The Tension

    panning for hope in a very angry America

  162. Printing Booklets

    less paper, easier reading

  163. No War on Coronavirus

    remembering the other way to see our problems

  164. Lies My Law School Told Me

    in praise of bad propaganda

  165. Don’t Pitch Lawyers

    pitch clients

  166. Deprogramming the Programmer

    throw off your jargon and be free

  167. Authority and Expertise

    digging up the land mines of attorney-client relations

  168. Survive America

    prepping for the obvious

  169. The Future of the Internet

    thanks for letting us know

  170. The War on License Notices

    managing uncertainty at the fringes of open licensing

  171. Don’t Sign Blank Checks

    a problem of pattern recognition

  172. Judicial Website, No Money Down

    sustainability, government style

  173. Water Team on The Oaklandside

    local news org covers water access proposals

  174. Electric, Light, Organized

    flameless light and power stopgaps for the homeless

  175. EBMUD for All

    open letter for homeless access to water

  176. Work Made for Hire … or Not

    one source of complexity in intellectual property terms

  177. Let’s Not All Read Terms of Service

    common quips on website terms miss the point

  178. You Have to Build a Time Machine

    Eventbrite falls into the terms of service trap

  179. How Congress Sees Open Source

    a view from outside

  180. Signing by E-Mail

    a writing is a writing is a writing

  181. Speedier Git for Text File Tracking

    streamlining for small, fast commits to personal records

  182. Doormat 1e

    free no-log, no-track privacy policy

  183. DMCASimple 1e

    another new first edition and website

  184. Turnstile 1e

    first edition and new website

  185. Copyright Notices Begone

    pointless costs of ancient licenses

  186. From Justice With Love

    the antitrust division groks open source strategy

  187. Communes to Cooperatives

    musings of a Drop City scholar

  188. Public Domain Appendix

    public license for From Dictatorship to Democracy

  189. Mix Many Metaphors

    analogies galore in Oracle v. Google oral argument

  190. Oracle v. Google Oral Argument

    major league copyright lawyering at bat

  191. The Ethical Consequences of Our Collective Activities

    professional ethics as the missing root of entitlement?

  192. California Welfare and Institutions Code 17000

    on the books since 1965

  193. Son of Water Boy

    latest lessons and tips

  194. Security Services Terms

    giving a specialized field its due

  195. Types of Lawyers

    major food groups for clients

  196. Amateur Open Econ Toolkit

    compendium of concepts, theories, and theorists

  197. Not the Type

    tech exceptionalism in limp words and phrases

  198. Working in Public

    now comes the coder-celebrity

  199. Connecticut’s Police Bill

    first-read highlights

  200. Water Boy

    working up a playbook for supplying urban campers

  201. A Modest Trademark Proposal

    banish them from permissive open source

  202. In Praise of Juanito Rus

    recognizing professionalism in local public service

  203. Colorado’s Police Reform Law

    first-read highlights

  204. Expert Failure

    lawyers learning from scientists

  205. Programmer Power

    prying open “software freedom”

  206. Threat Rhetoric

    narrative error in policing

  207. Police Qualified Immunity Reading

    recommended overview and primary sources

  208. No Justice

    facing the mirror in a time of inequality

  209. PolyForm Defensive is Now PolyForm Shield

    feedback strikes again

  210. Anything to Everyone

    “defund the police” through the lens of “open source”

  211. Narrative Error

    that’s my hero story, and I’m sticking to it

  212. Acceptable Use

    different delivery, same rules

  213. Facing the Choir

    reading and hearing American police unions

  214. Free & Open Picture Book

    a conundrum in four panels

  215. Normally Open & Normally Closed

    simple templates for restricted terms

  216. Oakland Police Commission

    money, gas, rubber, and “fuck”

  217. DMSimple

    plain and simple DMCA safe harbor terms

  218. The March in Oakland

    a flyover, firsthand account of rally and march

  219. Round Robin 1.0.0

    ready for the field

  220. Round Robin License

    new name, new terms, same great idea

  221. Protestant Work Product

    recognizing overwork in the field

  222. Turnstile

    springboard website terms of service

  223. Progressive Standardization

    standardized contracting can also be flexible

  224. PolyForm Noncompete Licenses

    two new, long-awaited forms

  225. Springboard Agreements

    putting a name to a tool

  226. Lawyerization

    vocabulary for lawyer involvement and influence

  227. “Open Source” Is Nobody’s Property

    if OSI owned it, they wouldn’t be so touchy about it

  228. Two Tiny Web Apps

    long-serving micro-groupware

  229. Name this Contract Type

    agreements incorporating all their terms by reference

  230. Allowable Tolerances

    law can learn a lot from the trades

  231. Antidote

    critical and alternative views on free and open source software

  232. Pay-Per-Law, Inc.

    the glory and agony of Georgia v. Public Resource

  233. Neighbor Meals

    ground game for safer group takeout

  234. redline.commonform.org

    compare Common Form markup online

  235. Common-Pool Pushovers

    Elinor Ostrom without boundaries

  236. edit.commonform.org

    try Common Form’s editing tools online

  237. Common Form, Simplified

    publish, share, save our souls

  238. Locked-In Customers Anonymous

    stop buying software from assholes

  239. No Thanks

    software freedom without programmers

  240. Site of Shame

    if you can’t negotiate, castigate?

  241. The Tote Bag

    remembering the Great Recession

  242. Do Not Track or Do Not Sell

    conflict or convenience?

  243. Open COVID Pledge

    public licensing for pandemic response

  244. Noncompete By Two Other Names

    Why are the last PolyForm licenses taking so long?

  245. Sharetribe Community Public License 1.0, Line by Line

    another everything-but-SaaS license

  246. Intelligent Perception

    low bow to the legal laity

  247. Take the Money and Run

    if you’re not hurting, try helping

  248. CERN OHL-S 2.0, Line by Line

    the open share-alike hardware license we actually need now?

  249. Section 1106 (Loan Forgiveness) of the CARES Act

    formatted, linked, and linkable

  250. Medtronic’s PB560 Ventilator License, Line by Line

    medical device company devises copyleft license

  251. Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment

    Californians probably can’t do advance directives right now, but that’s likely not what they need

  252. Against Legal Technology

    beyond the latest office software

  253. Open Source for Business 3e

    new edition of an oft-recommended book

  254. Subscribe by E-Mail

    another way to see new posts

  255. Sustain Podcast

    business models, licenses, role playing

  256. Not Those Dreams

    Nintendo purges Mario from Dreams

  257. California Medical Directives at Home

    Can we get our end-of-life wishes down without breaking health orders?

  258. Medical Advance Directives Working Group

    looking for lawyers, translators, and editors

  259. notlegaladvice.law

    shareable explainer page

  260. Blue Is Blue

    a strange thing about learned language

  261. World Tour Canceled

    mouse best plans, but what ado now?

  262. Name Calling Isn’t Precise

    “neo-closed” will come and go

  263. Terms of Service, Take Two

    shorter, higher-level, more fun

  264. Foreign Virus

    another good excuse to order in Chinese

  265. Terms of Service, Take One

    reviewing the terms you’ve already agreed to

  266. Copyleft Has No Posse

    war is over, want it or not

  267. Short Spiel on Legal Tech

    law’s retrograde rep is more about tech than law

  268. Dreams Creates a Commons?

    a video game for making video games

  269. Not Not Political

    if software matters, it’s already political

  270. This Mess We’re In

    ethics, open source, and free riding

  271. Skimming Hippocratic License Version 2.0

    text and quick thoughts

  272. Untangling Tech Merit and Tech Privilege

    section 230 is but one kind of subsidy

  273. More Accessible

    small tweaks to better accommodate readers

  274. Data Under Universal Share-Alike

    limits on effective data copyleft

  275. Reduce, Reuse, Reconsider

    if you wish to make a great hacker from scratch, let them reimplement the universe

  276. Patent Potato

    the game that never ends

  277. Scratch Other People’s Itches

    achieve more meaning and feel less alone

  278. Copyleft Should be Scary

    if the virus wasn’t scary, would we wash out hands?

  279. Portland Trip Confirmed

    February 23 to February 29

  280. Open Source Should Come With Warranties

    (from the companies who use it)

  281. CCPA Service Provider Addendum

    plain, minimal form

  282. What did I just agree to?

    Marc Jones on oddities in OSI-approved licenses

  283. Luis Villa’s Licensing Year in Review

    harassment made the list, and should have

  284. Portland in February

    See you there?

  285. Few-Maintainer Projects

    reality-driven expectations

  286. Renaming API Copyleft

    naming for purpose, not implementation

  287. Starting Noncommercial

    famous projects that started noncommercial

  288. API Copyleft 2.0.0-pre.1

    bringing the best of Parity to API Copyleft

  289. Video Footnotes

    one-way video as hackable interactive medium

  290. The Main Event

    Amazon versus Startups and the New York Times

  291. The Doorway NDA

    lawyers earning their stereotypes

  292. Paste Your Terms Into Your E-Mails

    why don’t we do the obvious thing?

  293. Teach Everyone to Be Like Us

    Moxie Marlinspike, wiser than he may have known

  294. git push is the Process

    permissionless license development now

  295. Big Time Public License

    a noncommercial, small-biz license with a big-biz fair terms guarantee

  296. Rakow 2019

    score one, illegal art people

  297. Correct and Intuitive Fairness

    How can a license say what “fair” is ahead of time?

  298. I Am Not Advising Legally

    smart people don’t understand lawyers’ disclaimers

  299. A Fistful of Services

    my go-to web applications and utilities

  300. TNR12 and Be There

    learning from others

  301. npm fund

    new subcommand and metadata standard

  302. Talking Points: Ethical Licenses

    collecting points and counterpoints

  303. Reading the WeAllJS Code of Conduct

    line-by-line and off-the-cuff

  304. XML versus JSON

    key quote form a great paper

  305. Universal Share-Alike License

    copyleft across different kinds of work

  306. Venture Capital Shill

    scapegoating free software’s failures

  307. Nomadic Lawyering

    office out, travel in?

  308. MulanPSL

    a new riff on the Apache patent bargain from China

  309. Heather Meeker on “Ethos Licensing”

    free and open is ethos licensing, too

  310. “BSD with PATENTS” and “BSD-2-Clause Plus Patent” are Not the Same

    similar licenses, very different receptions

  311. Love this License

    law brut with ASCII art

  312. Blue Oak Guide to Copyleft

    short introduction and license families

  313. Waypoint Trademark

    protecting the integrity of a standard form

  314. CASE Act Flythrough

    notes from a quick read of H.R. 2426

  315. Blue Oak Test Suite

    test cases for new public licenses

  316. Blue Oak Reading List

    reading list for lawyers new to open source

  317. XLC Building Blocks

    essential concepts and vocabulary for cross-license collaboratives

  318. Cross-License Collaboratives

    decentralizing contributor license agreements

  319. Standards, Patents, Open Source

    towards constructive collaboration across practice communities

  320. Blue Oak Guidance on Mergers and Acquisitions

    please stop paying me so much to fix reps and warranties

  321. No LICENSE

    they won’t see your funding plea if they never look

  322. Our Ethics, Not Yours

    in defense of Seth Vargo and morality-first licenses

  323. The Tyranny of Time

    licensing gives developers much-needed flexibility

  324. Open Core is Not a Good Story

    three better ways to express yourself and your company

  325. Open Legal Podcast?

    considering an open legal podcast

  326. Is this conference a good idea?

    forthcoming talk at a conference

  327. The Great Open Source Shake-Up

    more mandatory reading from Kate Downing

  328. Here Comes the CCPA

    my annotated copy of the statute

  329. Waypoint 2.0.0

    a more adaptable, international standard

  330. Changeblog

    a few thoughts on a friend’s podcast appearance

  331. Require Credit For Your Software

    a general-purpose legal tool to require credit for open work

  332. Waypoint Abroad

    seeking quick reads from non-US counsel

  333. PANDA for Privacy

    the NDA for your personal information

  334. PolyForm 1.0.0

    standard noncommercial software licenses at last

  335. Heather Meeker on Patent Risk Allocation

    unique compilation of arguments and dynamics

  336. Get In, Get Out

    open source advice for new programmers breaking into the industry

  337. Help Take the Waypoint NDA International

    a call for help from common-law colleagues

  338. Open Letters

    a snail mail experiment

  339. A Twit No More

    farewell, Twitter

  340. Dark Arts at Daybreak

    the end of club rule in open source law

  341. Operating Environment

    essential industry background for reading open software licenses

  342. SSPL Was Not Commons Clause

    how open licensing blew its biggest opportunity of the 2010s

  343. PolyForm Project

    simple, standard, plain-language software licenses

  344. Mortarboard Licenses

    graduate to new public license terms

  345. Schools of Cohesion

    exploring the crosswise policy biases we learn from open software

  346. Prone Blogging Setup

    how to type when the pain puts you on your back

  347. Tyranny of Permissionlessness

    open source’s narrow focus further empowers those with other ways to exclude

  348. Don’t Rely on OSI Approval

    activist approval does not track practical needs

  349. AFL-3.0 versus OSL-3.0

    a redline (diff) with important network terms highlighted

  350. The Waypoint NDA

    stop wasting time on NDAs

  351. #wontfix

    endorsements can’t fix the Open Source Definition

  352. Calls to Sustainability Action via package.json

    a new proposal, schema, and tools

  353. Enterprise Ready Open Software License Supplement

    the status quo, plus money for devs

  354. Stairway to Heaven

    repairing broken steps to software license Nirvana

  355. The Diachronic Treadmill License

    automatically reward supporters with copyleft exceptions

  356. License Utopia

    just four licenses for all of open source

  357. Ethical Subcommons Starter Kit

    bringing openness to software of moral concern

  358. Weak or Strong is Wrong

    towards selective or consistent copyleft

  359. Deprecation Notice: MIT and BSD

    it’s time to retire thirty-year-old academic licenses

  360. Blue Oak Council

    opening the software commons to everyone

  361. Back to IP

    the copyright giant has a policy

  362. Indie Open Source

    developing resource for indie-ready business models

  363. Open Source Software License Reading List

    a comprehensive curriculum for new license wonks

  364. First Thoughts on the Redis Source Available License Agreement

    evident demand for license rules on API boundaries

  365. API Copyleft License 1.0.0

    first release of API-boundary copyleft form

  366. API Copyleft

    functionality, interfaces, and line drawing in a new copyleft paradigm

  367. Critique This License

    developing a standard paid-software license

  368. Shared Component License

    first shot at a short, plain license in the vein of Mongo’s SSPL

  369. Outer Source

    open software by closed methods

  370. The Discipline of Stated Purpose

    write out the purposes of legal terms in contracts

  371. Availability Dashboard

    professional availability now online

  372. Apache-2.0 versus ECL-2.0

    a redline (diff) showing substantive changes

  373. Open Source is Not About You

    a minimal, functionalist view of open source

  374. Open Handicaps

    Did permissive used to advantage open work like copyleft does today?

  375. Selective Openness

    making money by choosing what to give away

  376. The Open Source Definition as Copyleft Regulation

    an in-depth review of commonly cited criteria

  377. The Copyleft Bust Up

    loopholes, licenses, and realpolitik in open source

  378. How to Speak Copyleft

    the missing vocabulary of copyleft design

  379. Elsewhere: Mapping Open Business Models

    crosspost from the License Zero blog

  380. Seeking Comment: Copyright Notice Recommendation

    first stab at a pragmatic best-practice guide

  381. A Canting Tribe Are We

    attacking the NDA problem with standards networks

  382. Indirect Licensing

    dispensing software licenses in the Internet era

  383. Contributor Councils

    relicensing without foundation, BDFL, or unanimity

  384. Motorcycles in the Wind

    do not do or die

  385. Patents for Software Freedom

    gun-shy insurgents and the heavy weapons of IP law

  386. Bilking Angels

    celestial finance for earth-bound developers

  387. Crowd Hiring

    assurance contracts for short-term open software maintenance

  388. Quick Read of Tidelift’s Lifting Agreement

    nits picked in the developer terms for a new pay-the-devs company

  389. Private Changes in Free Software Copyleft Licenses

    Where’s the fifth freedom?

  390. Enforce Open Source Licenses with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act

    takedown power for DIY developers

  391. Unhappy Coincidences

    marriages of licensing convenience, and changed circumstances

  392. Selective Mythology

    defining open source for fun and profit, in the shadow of the enterprise

  393. Attending LegalHackers Summit

  394. The Decentralization Game

    tips for values-forward reformers

  395. The Posterity Public License

    a strong-attribution open source license

  396. Interviewed on Open Source and Money

    TechCrunch article on problems and solutions

  397. Digging Contracts Out of the Hole

    simple tools for drafting to be proud of

  398. California Work Made for Hire Statutes

    work made for hire contracts can make contractors employees for state employment insurance purposes

  399. Plain GDPR Processor Addendum

    open form plain-language processor addendum

  400. Plain Terms of Service

    open form terms of service for websites

  401. Proseline

    peer to peer prose editing

  402. Six Great Deals Books

    read these books

  403. Public Domain Chronicle

    a fast, easy, and free way to secure scientific methods and findings for the public domain

  404. Help Wanted

    kinds of help I could use

  405. Transparent Contract Components

    sharper tools, finer toolmarks

  406. MPL-2.0 versus OPL-2.1

    a redline (diff) showing changes

  407. Lexical Scope for Contracts

    wandering ever closer to LISP

  408. I Have Another Blog

    you may want to subscribe on License Zero, too

  409. Licence Libre du Québec – Réciprocité versus - Réciprocité forte

    a redline (diff) showing changes

  410. CLAs are Not a Sham

    licensing with friends, improved and improving

  411. The Well Appointed Skinner Box

    farewell, Medium

  412. Contract Components

    fine-grained means of abstraction in legal drafting

  413. Debian Free Software Guidelines versus the Open Source Definition

    a redline (diff) showing changes

  414. Mercenary Rapport

    moral blindness in open source on social media

  415. Unsustainability at Scale

    today’s tools for yesterday’s problems tomorrow

  416. Feed this Bear

    indie coder, promote thyself!

  417. Overkill

    doing IP law wrong, and getting away with it

  418. The License Zero Manifesto

    sustainable software in the open

  419. Prescription Contracts

    thinking about direct lawyer guidance on rxnda.com

  420. Null Value

    against demise of the hacker public license

  421. Nobody’s Clients

  422. RxNDA.com

    breaking the NDA logjam

  423. Seven Takeaways from the SEC DAO Report

    reading the tea leaves of the Commission’s first major ICO report

  424. Switchmode Developer Agreement

    an open form contract for open source contractors

  425. Open Software Service Terms

    legal terms for paid web apps, now available in the English language

  426. It’s Not About Community

    another view of Open Source

  427. Open Source: Theory of Operation

    a short, practical guide to open source software for programmers at work

  428. Debian 8.7 on Dell Optiplex 7010

  429. Open Source License Business Perception Report

    the pain and confusion of common open licenses, roughly quantified

  430. Against Legislating the Nonobvious

    short-order feedback on the default contributor license in GitHub’s draft terms of service

  431. The Mendicant Maintainerati

    no holy fools for Open Source

  432. The MIT License, Line by Line

    171 words every programmer should understand

  433. The Earl of Ethereum’s Case

    Who keeps a blockchain’s conscience?

  434. Deal Mechanic

    The writing on the door.

  435. Emancipation by Reference

    I am just a copy of a copy of a copy. Everything I say you have read before.

  436. Node.js Streams

    fundamental abstractions reviewed and revisited

  437. IP Field Guide

    publicly licensed, publicly available intro for non-lawyers

  438. The JavaScript Joke Was on Me

    or, a few things learned the hard way

  439. Circulation Policy

    Confidentiality rules and procedures for the great Common Form library in the sky

  440. Annotations in Context

    A first attempt at useful, responsible Common Form annotations

  441. I Don’t Want to Know What “Open Source” Means

    I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all on GitHub.

  442. License from Who?

    Safe open-source licensing means more than a LICENSE file.

  443. The Triplebyte Plan

    The tangled web of one start-up equity plan

  444. The Berneout Pledge

    Sucks less than CLAs!

  445. First Read: The Fair Source License

    Text and my first thoughts on a new, non-open source form license

  446. I’ll Never Be a Super Lawyer

    In feigned ignorance there is no grace.

  447. Startup Unix

    An open legal operating system for start-up technology companies

  448. What Enumeration Means

    Enumeration is an essential contract drafting tool. Don’t disclaim it!

  449. Template Ambiguity

    Document assembly can make ambiguity even harder to spot.

  450. The Blanks Problem

    A tough Common Form design decision explained.

  451. Term Injection

    Fighting insertion of unexpected terms in automated form contracts

  452. React Patent Redline

    Changes to Facebook’s patent grant for React, Flux, Immutable, &c.

  453. Certificated Assent

    How signed is signed enough for a hosted software licensing deal?

  454. Hacking Common Form

    Overview of existing Common Form software for programmers

  455. Terms of Service; Already Read

    Verifiable contracts should help consumers, too.

  456. Reproduction of Hierarchy

    Markdown isn’t great for contracts. HTML5 is better.

  457. Index Card Contracts

    Common Form for paper people

  458. Grab-Bag Contracts

    Might we write contracts like we fill shopping bags at the grocery store?

  459. Named Provisions

    If contract section numbers are just another namespace, can they be replaced with defined terms?

  460. vesting.js

    From code to law and back again

  461. Blind Patches

    What if open-source contributors could submit patches anonymously and choose to claim credit later?

  462. Modularity is not the Law

    Ancient and modern principles of contract interpretation work against contracts made of modular parts

  463. The Halliburton Hypothesis

    Quantifying the negotiating process to mount attacks on the confidentiality of a public contract forms repository

  464. Value Statement

    as found at the feet of my bills

  465. FTC 2014 Year in Review

    What do the FTC’s 2014 privacy and security enforcement actions teach tech companies?

  466. Common Form

    Composable, verifiable, shareable form contracts for the modern practice of law

  467. deflect.js

    An ECMAScript module fusing Node.js error-first convention with continuation passing style, plus a twist to make composed stacks of asynchronous functions dynamic

  468. Deep Data Privacy Risk

    Cheap storage technology isn’t just changing what information we store; it’s also changing how we store familiar kinds of information. Both developments have implications for privacy.