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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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Contracts

  1. A Legal Rule That Makes Writing Worse

    moving past the fantasy of consistency

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

    fear, uncertainty, and doubt upon ethical licenses

  3. On-Cloud Licensing

    the wheel of software delivery keeps on turning

  4. Wikimedia’s Terms of Use

    thoughts from a recent review

  5. The Law Does Not Require Legalese

    a reassuring dive into contract interpretation

  6. Sneaking Things In

    yes, lawyers actually do this

  7. Waypoint NDA 4.0.0

    now with mergers and acquisitions terms

  8. Zelensky Compound NDA

    the mystery of the ritual runs deeper than law

  9. Second Draft of Waypoint for M&A

    refining acquisition-specific terms to the standard business NDA

  10. Square One 2e1u

    addressing an interesting Utah peculiarity

  11. Waypoint for M&A

    adding acquisition-specific terms to the standard business NDA

  12. Specifically Regulating Standardized Contracting

    quick thoughts on the Consumer Review Fairness Act of 2016

  13. Square One Second Edition

    improved US hiring forms and terms

  14. Signature Blocks 101

    what goes where and why, in brief

  15. Contract by E-Mail

    contract power is in your hands

  16. Waypoint NDA 3.0.0

    small terms fixes, big presentation improvements

  17. The Guestbook NDA

    a standard one-way nondisclosure agreement

  18. One-Way NDA

    good names for the next standard NDA?

  19. Law Insider’s Contract Teardowns

    lawyers dissect specific contract language

  20. Flat Forms

    plain language should come in plain pieces

  21. Waypoint Turns Two

    stop wasting time on nondisclosure agreements

  22. Square One

    fair terms. free forms. back to work.

  23. Don’t Sign Blank Checks

    a problem of pattern recognition

  24. Let’s Not All Read Terms of Service

    common quips on website terms miss the point

  25. You Have to Build a Time Machine

    Eventbrite falls into the terms of service trap

  26. Signing by E-Mail

    a writing is a writing is a writing

  27. Turnstile 1e

    first edition and new website

  28. DMSimple

    plain and simple DMCA safe harbor terms

  29. Turnstile

    springboard website terms of service

  30. Progressive Standardization

    standardized contracting can also be flexible

  31. Springboard Agreements

    putting a name to a tool

  32. Name this Contract Type

    agreements incorporating all their terms by reference

  33. redline.commonform.org

    compare Common Form markup online

  34. edit.commonform.org

    try Common Form’s editing tools online

  35. Common Form, Simplified

    publish, share, save our souls

  36. Terms of Service, Take Two

    shorter, higher-level, more fun

  37. Terms of Service, Take One

    reviewing the terms you’ve already agreed to

  38. CCPA Service Provider Addendum

    plain, minimal form

  39. Paste Your Terms Into Your E-Mails

    why don’t we do the obvious thing?

  40. Waypoint Trademark

    protecting the integrity of a standard form

  41. Waypoint 2.0.0

    a more adaptable, international standard

  42. Waypoint Abroad

    seeking quick reads from non-US counsel

  43. PANDA for Privacy

    the NDA for your personal information

  44. Help Take the Waypoint NDA International

    a call for help from common-law colleagues

  45. The Waypoint NDA

    stop wasting time on NDAs

  46. Critique This License

    developing a standard paid-software license

  47. The Discipline of Stated Purpose

    write out the purposes of legal terms in contracts

  48. A Canting Tribe Are We

    attacking the NDA problem with standards networks

  49. Crowd Hiring

    assurance contracts for short-term open software maintenance

  50. Quick Read of Tidelift’s Lifting Agreement

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

  51. Digging Contracts Out of the Hole

    simple tools for drafting to be proud of

  52. California Work Made for Hire Statutes

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

  53. Plain GDPR Processor Addendum

    open form plain-language processor addendum

  54. Plain Terms of Service

    open form terms of service for websites

  55. Six Great Deals Books

    read these books

  56. Feed this Bear

    indie coder, promote thyself!

  57. Prescription Contracts

    thinking about direct lawyer guidance on rxnda.com

  58. RxNDA.com

    breaking the NDA logjam

  59. Switchmode Developer Agreement

    an open form contract for open source contractors

  60. Open Software Service Terms

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

  61. The Mendicant Maintainerati

    no holy fools for Open Source

  62. Emancipation by Reference

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

  63. What Enumeration Means

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

  64. Template Ambiguity

    Document assembly can make ambiguity even harder to spot.

  65. The Blanks Problem

    A tough Common Form design decision explained.

  66. Term Injection

    Fighting insertion of unexpected terms in automated form contracts

  67. Certificated Assent

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

  68. Reproduction of Hierarchy

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

  69. Index Card Contracts

    Common Form for paper people

  70. Grab-Bag Contracts

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

  71. Named Provisions

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

  72. Modularity is not the Law

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

  73. The Halliburton Hypothesis

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

  74. Common Form

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