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>> law, technology, and the space between

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

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Contracts

  1. Wired on a Surrogacy Gone Wrong

    a thoroughly modern contract case

  2. A Legal Rule That Makes Writing Worse

    moving past the fantasy of consistency

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

    fear, uncertainty, and doubt upon ethical licenses

  4. On-Cloud Licensing

    the wheel of software delivery keeps on turning

  5. Wikimedia’s Terms of Use

    thoughts from a recent review

  6. The Law Does Not Require Legalese

    a reassuring dive into contract interpretation

  7. Sneaking Things In

    yes, lawyers actually do this

  8. Waypoint NDA 4.0.0

    now with mergers and acquisitions terms

  9. Zelensky Compound NDA

    the mystery of the ritual runs deeper than law

  10. Second Draft of Waypoint for M&A

    refining acquisition-specific terms to the standard business NDA

  11. Square One 2e1u

    addressing an interesting Utah peculiarity

  12. Waypoint for M&A

    adding acquisition-specific terms to the standard business NDA

  13. Specifically Regulating Standardized Contracting

    quick thoughts on the Consumer Review Fairness Act of 2016

  14. Square One Second Edition

    improved US hiring forms and terms

  15. Signature Blocks 101

    what goes where and why, in brief

  16. Contract by E-Mail

    contract power is in your hands

  17. Waypoint NDA 3.0.0

    small terms fixes, big presentation improvements

  18. The Guestbook NDA

    a standard one-way nondisclosure agreement

  19. One-Way NDA

    good names for the next standard NDA?

  20. Law Insider’s Contract Teardowns

    lawyers dissect specific contract language

  21. Flat Forms

    plain language should come in plain pieces

  22. Waypoint Turns Two

    stop wasting time on nondisclosure agreements

  23. Square One

    fair terms. free forms. back to work.

  24. Don’t Sign Blank Checks

    a problem of pattern recognition

  25. Let’s Not All Read Terms of Service

    common quips on website terms miss the point

  26. You Have to Build a Time Machine

    Eventbrite falls into the terms of service trap

  27. Signing by E-Mail

    a writing is a writing is a writing

  28. Turnstile 1e

    first edition and new website

  29. DMSimple

    plain and simple DMCA safe harbor terms

  30. Turnstile

    springboard website terms of service

  31. Progressive Standardization

    standardized contracting can also be flexible

  32. Springboard Agreements

    putting a name to a tool

  33. Name this Contract Type

    agreements incorporating all their terms by reference

  34. redline.commonform.org

    compare Common Form markup online

  35. edit.commonform.org

    try Common Form’s editing tools online

  36. Common Form, Simplified

    publish, share, save our souls

  37. Terms of Service, Take Two

    shorter, higher-level, more fun

  38. Terms of Service, Take One

    reviewing the terms you’ve already agreed to

  39. CCPA Service Provider Addendum

    plain, minimal form

  40. Paste Your Terms Into Your E-Mails

    why don’t we do the obvious thing?

  41. Waypoint Trademark

    protecting the integrity of a standard form

  42. Waypoint 2.0.0

    a more adaptable, international standard

  43. Waypoint Abroad

    seeking quick reads from non-US counsel

  44. PANDA for Privacy

    the NDA for your personal information

  45. Help Take the Waypoint NDA International

    a call for help from common-law colleagues

  46. The Waypoint NDA

    stop wasting time on NDAs

  47. Critique This License

    developing a standard paid-software license

  48. The Discipline of Stated Purpose

    write out the purposes of legal terms in contracts

  49. A Canting Tribe Are We

    attacking the NDA problem with standards networks

  50. Crowd Hiring

    assurance contracts for short-term open software maintenance

  51. Quick Read of Tidelift’s Lifting Agreement

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

  52. Digging Contracts Out of the Hole

    simple tools for drafting to be proud of

  53. California Work Made for Hire Statutes

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

  54. Plain GDPR Processor Addendum

    open form plain-language processor addendum

  55. Plain Terms of Service

    open form terms of service for websites

  56. Six Great Deals Books

    read these books

  57. Feed this Bear

    indie coder, promote thyself!

  58. Prescription Contracts

    thinking about direct lawyer guidance on rxnda.com

  59. RxNDA.com

    breaking the NDA logjam

  60. Switchmode Developer Agreement

    an open form contract for open source contractors

  61. Open Software Service Terms

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

  62. The Mendicant Maintainerati

    no holy fools for Open Source

  63. Emancipation by Reference

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

  64. What Enumeration Means

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

  65. Template Ambiguity

    Document assembly can make ambiguity even harder to spot.

  66. The Blanks Problem

    A tough Common Form design decision explained.

  67. Term Injection

    Fighting insertion of unexpected terms in automated form contracts

  68. Certificated Assent

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

  69. Reproduction of Hierarchy

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

  70. Index Card Contracts

    Common Form for paper people

  71. Grab-Bag Contracts

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

  72. Named Provisions

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

  73. Modularity is not the Law

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

  74. The Halliburton Hypothesis

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

  75. Common Form

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