3 ms·

I really wanted to hate this going into it, but I think this is stellar. I echo some of the wishes of others, though - being able to truly modularize the licens

by junon 6y ago

I really wanted to hate this going into it, but I think this is stellar. I echo some of the wishes of others, though - being able to truly modularize the license to include your terms in a way that is legally sound and reviewed would be groundbreaking.

kemitchell 6y ago
I'm not quite sure what you mean by modularizing licenses, but I'd bet I'm probably for it. All of the 1.0.0 PolyForm licenses are built from a common template. A lot of the language is completely common across forms. Diffs are fairly clean. At the same time, we're starting to hear that some of the mechanisms for that modularity, like the concept of "permitted purpose", make reading individual licenses harder than could be. If/when we get around to 2.0.0s, I expect we'll probably individualize the terms more. If you're interested in modularity for building licenses that haven't been implemented yet, I'll plug a project of mine: https://github.com/berneout/normally-open-closed https://github.com/berneout/normally-open-closed These are essentially templates with blank spots for what you are or are not allowing. The standardization-customization trade-off applies as usual. The point is to help people who actually need new license terms to focus on the terms that are actually new, rather than the legal rigging. Think "license framework" or "license starter". By the by, I'm affiliated with PolyForm, but don't speak for the org as a whole here. Diversity of views and opinions is one of our strengths, though it has slowed us down from time to time.
- junon 6y ago
  By modularization, I mean being able to configure the sorts of terms you want in your license, perhaps via UI. Instead of 6 or so fully-fleshed-out licenses for 6 unique purposes, you'd instead have a selection of "terms" or whatever that each add a limitation or a grant to the license. I'd be able to check something like "limited liability", "free to use", "free to modify" but perhaps leave "used commercially" and "must re-contribute modifications" unchecked. The generated result would be a license in a similar format to what PolyForm does now (which I really like, by the way) but with the customized terms. You could then retrofit the existing v1 contracts into the new system as presets.

by junon 6y ago

kemitchell 6y ago

I'm not quite sure what you mean by modularizing licenses, but I'd bet I'm probably for it. All of the 1.0.0 PolyForm licenses are built from a common template. A lot of the language is completely common across forms. Diffs are fairly clean. At the same time, we're starting to hear that some of the mechanisms for that modularity, like the concept of "permitted purpose", make reading individual licenses harder than could be. If/when we get around to 2.0.0s, I expect we'll probably individualize the terms more. If you're interested in modularity for building licenses that haven't been implemented yet, I'll plug a project of mine: https://github.com/berneout/normally-open-closed https://github.com/berneout/normally-open-closed These are essentially templates with blank spots for what you are or are not allowing. The standardization-customization trade-off applies as usual. The point is to help people who actually need new license terms to focus on the terms that are actually new, rather than the legal rigging. Think "license framework" or "license starter". By the by, I'm affiliated with PolyForm, but don't speak for the org as a whole here. Diversity of views and opinions is one of our strengths, though it has slowed us down from time to time.

junon 6y ago
By modularization, I mean being able to configure the sorts of terms you want in your license, perhaps via UI. Instead of 6 or so fully-fleshed-out licenses for 6 unique purposes, you'd instead have a selection of "terms" or whatever that each add a limitation or a grant to the license. I'd be able to check something like "limited liability", "free to use", "free to modify" but perhaps leave "used commercially" and "must re-contribute modifications" unchecked. The generated result would be a license in a similar format to what PolyForm does now (which I really like, by the way) but with the customized terms. You could then retrofit the existing v1 contracts into the new system as presets.