Please note that the Legal Affairs Drafting Subcommittee is not currently accepting new members.

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/.

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.

Organization

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.

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.

How to Join/Self Nominations

Please note that the Legal Affairs Drafting Subcommittee is not currently accepting new members.  

Requested Information

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.

Approval

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

Consensus

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.

Negative Votes

Any negative votes must include a substantive explanation of the objection.

Voting Eligibility

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).