3 ms·

I have asked a lawyer this question. His response was: As for copyright over similar disclaimers, we, as attorneys have to use language that is acceptable

I have asked a lawyer this question. His response was: As for copyright over similar disclaimers, we, as attorneys have to use language that is acceptable as far as precedent and current law is concerned, thus, language will often be verbatim. Because of this there are no problems with copyright as far as the terms of use are concerned. The same principle is applied to real estate P&S contracts, as well as construction contracts and the like.

ScottBurson 15y ago
Cool, thanks!!
- gburt 15y ago
  Remember that the lawyer in question is not your lawyer. You probably shouldn't take the above (or, in fact, the below - nothing I say is legal advice, nothing in this thread is legal advice) as legal advice. I am definitely not a lawyer, but that lawyer's response sounds reasonable, but it sounds like it was also likely under a range of conditions -- in particular, I think if you ever get in a position where you have a bit of a "special" contract (i.e., anything unusual in the broad sense of the term) copyright could very well apply.
  - ScottBurson 15y ago
    Oh, I understand. I'm not duplicating large swaths of text wholesale. Most of it I'm writing fresh -- so given the above, it really sounds like I don't have to worry about borrowing a few phrases here and there.
- Silhouette 15y ago
  FWIW, we're in the middle of dealing with this right now in the UK, and the legal advice we have received is significantly different to that above. Caveat entrepreneur. My answer to the poll (for these and most other legal documents) is that we produce a serious draft ourselves first, and then take it to a decent lawyer for review. Our experience has been that asking lawyers (and accountants) to draft documentation from scratch is rarely cost-effective. If they aren't already very familiar with your business, you're just going to get whatever they can throw together in a couple of hours based on a loose understanding of what you do, partly because you're probably not paying for any more than that, and partly because they probably don't have enough detail from your preliminary discussions to produce something better anyway. Then you're effectively going to rewrite much of it yourself just to explain to them how things really work in enough detail to work with, and you're still going to go and see them again afterwards for fine-tuning. Edit: We do, however, sometimes have a preliminary call/meeting with a lawyer to find out what sorts of headings we ought to be filling out and ask about any tricky areas so we have some understanding before we try to draft anything. But we still do the drafting ourselves, even if it's just a plain English but detailed description of what we want to say that the lawyers can work on later.
willyt 15y ago
In the UK I know it's not ok to e.g make a photocopy of a standard construction contract and, I'm guessing, any other type of contract where copyright is claimed by the author. In a contractual dispute, if it can be shown that you do not generally act in good faith, by infringing copyright in this case, it can be used as evidence to call into question your intention to carry out your obligations under the contract and therefore a judge could decide that the other party may be relinquished from thier obligations. UK contract law is pretty complicated though and IANAL by the way. Edited for clarity.
- maaku 15y ago
  I am also not a lawyer, but this is clearly not the case in the US. Lawyers are even encouraged by the courts to use identical language so that prior judgements can be absolutely relied upon.

ScottBurson 15y ago

Cool, thanks!!

gburt 15y ago
Remember that the lawyer in question is not your lawyer. You probably shouldn't take the above (or, in fact, the below - nothing I say is legal advice, nothing in this thread is legal advice) as legal advice. I am definitely not a lawyer, but that lawyer's response sounds reasonable, but it sounds like it was also likely under a range of conditions -- in particular, I think if you ever get in a position where you have a bit of a "special" contract (i.e., anything unusual in the broad sense of the term) copyright could very well apply.
- ScottBurson 15y ago
  Oh, I understand. I'm not duplicating large swaths of text wholesale. Most of it I'm writing fresh -- so given the above, it really sounds like I don't have to worry about borrowing a few phrases here and there.
Silhouette 15y ago
FWIW, we're in the middle of dealing with this right now in the UK, and the legal advice we have received is significantly different to that above. Caveat entrepreneur. My answer to the poll (for these and most other legal documents) is that we produce a serious draft ourselves first, and then take it to a decent lawyer for review. Our experience has been that asking lawyers (and accountants) to draft documentation from scratch is rarely cost-effective. If they aren't already very familiar with your business, you're just going to get whatever they can throw together in a couple of hours based on a loose understanding of what you do, partly because you're probably not paying for any more than that, and partly because they probably don't have enough detail from your preliminary discussions to produce something better anyway. Then you're effectively going to rewrite much of it yourself just to explain to them how things really work in enough detail to work with, and you're still going to go and see them again afterwards for fine-tuning. Edit: We do, however, sometimes have a preliminary call/meeting with a lawyer to find out what sorts of headings we ought to be filling out and ask about any tricky areas so we have some understanding before we try to draft anything. But we still do the drafting ourselves, even if it's just a plain English but detailed description of what we want to say that the lawyers can work on later.

willyt 15y ago

In the UK I know it's not ok to e.g make a photocopy of a standard construction contract and, I'm guessing, any other type of contract where copyright is claimed by the author. In a contractual dispute, if it can be shown that you do not generally act in good faith, by infringing copyright in this case, it can be used as evidence to call into question your intention to carry out your obligations under the contract and therefore a judge could decide that the other party may be relinquished from thier obligations. UK contract law is pretty complicated though and IANAL by the way. Edited for clarity.

maaku 15y ago
I am also not a lawyer, but this is clearly not the case in the US. Lawyers are even encouraged by the courts to use identical language so that prior judgements can be absolutely relied upon.