If you’re anxious about the law, hit the books.  If you’re anxious about your drafting, fix your process.  Your only gnawing concern should be whe

Drafter's Anxiety — /dev/lawyer

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2021-05-25 15:30:02

If you’re anxious about the law, hit the books. If you’re anxious about your drafting, fix your process. Your only gnawing concern should be whether you’re serving those who need lawyer help.

Michael Weinberg published a piece about lawyers writing new open licenses today. It’s a good read, from a lawyer who’s done recent, groundbreaking work. There’s a lot to take in there, but I’d like to focus on one dynamic Michael calls out:

[A]ny lawyer who writes their own license is setting themselves up for a period of anxiety, waiting to discover what they missed or how things will go wrong.

[O]n balance and as a whole, introducing new licenses into the world of open source will probably cause open source lawyers more anxiety than joy.

This isn’t even a question when it comes to software licenses. There are tools and techniques for evolving strong, stable software. Nearly all those lessons can be translated to licenses, too.

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