Join the OWF Legal Affairs Committee
Lawrence Rosen
Join
the OWF Legal Affairs Committee
We invite you to join the OWF Legal Affairs Committee and its Legal Drafting
Subcommittee. Your input will be valuable to developers and users of the open
web. Instructions for joining in our activities are given below.
One of the important goals of the Open Web Foundation is to prepare model legal agreements that can be used to promote the development of free and open specifications for the web. The first of those documents is a model Specification Agreement (version 0.9) by which companies and individuals can make their patents and copyrights available for particular web specifications. See http://openwebfoundation.org/legal/.
This Specification Agreement is already being used by several companies, including Microsoft, Google, Facebook, SafeMashUps, and Yahoo!
The OWF
Legal Affairs Committee intends to start work immediately on a model
Contributor License Agreement. Future drafting work will include IP Policies,
Best Legal Practice Guides, revised versions of the Specification Agreement,
and other legal resources for the open web specification community.
Going forward, there will be two ways for you to participate in the OWF Legal
Affairs Committee:
1.
The Legal Affairs Committee
The current Open Web Legal email list (http://groups.google.com/group/open-web-legal)
will be used for review and comments relating to interim drafts and approaches,
as well as for questions about existing agreements and general support for
process questions. Members of the OWF Legal Affairs Committee will be
available on this email list to guide the discussions and answer questions from
the community. The list will be publicly viewable and anyone can
participate in this list by merely subscribing.
2. The Legal Drafting
Subcommittee
An OWF Legal Affairs Drafting Subcommittee will do the detailed negotiation
and drafting on a newly established email list (http://groups.google.com/group/open-web-legal-drafting).
This Legal Drafting Subcommittee will conduct its work on a private, archived
list limited to those (OWF members or non-members) who self nominate themselves
to participate and who are committed to working on detailed drafting and review
of proposed legal documents. We also plan to have regular calls.
This Subcommittee is not limited to attorneys, although the discussions
on the list will typically focus on detailed legal and strategic policy issues
relating to intellectual property for web specifications.
Drafting Subcommittee Self Nominations: Self
nominations to participate in the Legal Drafting Subcommittee will be accepted
on the public Legal Affairs Committee list. Nominees are asked to provide their
name, geographic location, time zone, employer, individual or corporate
participation, legal-related background, whether the party is represented by
counsel and who that counsel is, and reasons for participating in the Legal
Drafting Subcommittee. Nominees will be automatically approved 10 days after
submission unless an objection is raised to the OWF President, which can be
made privately. In the event of an objection, the objection will be
brought to the OWF Board for its consideration.
Drafting List Confidentiality: Although the Legal Drafting Subcommittee
email list will be open to anyone who self-nominates, participation will also
require a commitment to confidentiality. Participants will be asked to agree
not to publish any on-list comments outside the list without the approval of
its author. We intend for individuals and companies participating here to speak
candidly about their goals and strategic interests in an open web without fear
of being quoted in public without their consent. No proposed final draft will
be sent to the OWF Board prior to being submitted to the public Legal Affairs
Committee list for public review and discussion.
Drafting Subcommittee Voting: While the goal of the Legal Drafting Subcommittee will be to operate on a consensus basis, accepting a final draft will require a 2/3 majority vote. Any negative votes must include a substantive explanation of the objection. To be eligible to vote to send a draft to the OWF Board for consideration as a final agreement, a Legal Drafting Subcommittee participant must have 1) voted in at least 2 of the last 3 list votes (i.e., votes around individual aspects of draft agreements, decision points such as seeking Legal Affairs Committee input or review, etc.) or participated in at least 2 of the last 3 Subcommittee meetings/calls, and 2) been a member of the Legal Drafting Subcommittee for at least 45 days prior to the vote (starting upon the approval to join the list rather than the date of self-nomination).
For
further information or to volunteer to join us in drafting these important open
web documents, please send an email to open-we...@googlegroups.com
or contact the interim co-chairs of the OWF Legal Affairs Committee.
Thank you,
OWF Interim Legal Committee Co-Chairs
David Rudin – davi...@microsoft.com
Lawrence Rosen – lro...@rosenlaw.com
Steve Repetti
I would be happy to participate in both the Legal Affairs Committee and the Legal Drafting Committee.
I currently chair the Data Portability Governance Action Group, and previously chaired the Data Portability Legal Task Force, and hope that I could provide additional assistance to the great work already being provided here.
Regards,
Steve Repetti
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