Plain Language Contracts Built for Web Designers | Hacker News Reader

Plain Language Contracts Built for Web Designers

24ways.org

20 pointsweaksauce5 comments

A great example of a readable and effective contract I've found is the terms of use to the Patently-O blog:

http://www.patentlyo.com/patent/2006/01/patentlyo_blog_.html

It does a nice job of using the formal legal language but also introducing each section with a human readable explanation.

The contract terms in the article are good in that they are human readable, but they lack legal precision. Consider the copyright assignment: "you own the graphics and visual elements" but "we own the XHTML markup, CSS and other code." There are plenty of ambiguities (if someone copies the layout, whose copyright is infringed? are the licenses exclusive? are they revocable?). Two judges could read this contract to mean substantially different things.

I agree that the language is not exact. The problem with law and court cases is that two judges with the same contract might come to different conclusions about said contract. This occurs even when the contract is spelled out in legalese.

I think the nature of the article is more for a web developer that either does not have the money for a decent lawyer or who would go and do the project without some kind of protective contract in place because they did not think that a contract was necessary for normal business.

BTW: The patent contract is a good, readable contract and I like it.

I think that this is useful if you massage it for your own needs. Changing some of the terms and deleting some of the other ones that don't make sense for your business you can create a contract that should work well. I am not a lawyer so I cannot attest to how enforceable this contract is (especially in your country/state) versus one drafted by a lawyer. In California, a verbal contract is enforceable so on the surface this seems like it would be as well.

As an aside, the severability clause is a good one to have in any contract.

If the shit hits the fan, would this contract even work properly? Contracts are only good when the shit hits the fan. They're insurance policies. (And might induce people to do thing b/c of fear)

Contracts are useless when shit actually hits the fan, as anyone with motivation and a decent lawyer can wriggle out of them fairly easy. Contracts are a deterrent, and something you can use to keep a client or web provider in line. Sort of like a business nuclear bomb.

And if you're a small guy, either keep your contracts small and simple or don't use them at all. Small biz owners are weary of signing anything and typically work better over a handshake and your word.

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