Free and Open Source Legal Documents To Help With Your Business

[vangogh]

I recently found a site that looks interesting. The site, Docracy, offers free and open legal documents (http://www.docracy.com) to help with a lot of things. I haven't yet looked through the documents so I can't say how good or bad they are, but the idea is that anyone can upload something and since they're open source, the community can edit and improve them.

It looks like they have documents for both personal and business and they've created bundles for specific things. I was pointed to the site for a bundle of contracts and other documents for web designers. I see one for freelancers and another for startups. I don't see any way to browse beyond the few things on the home page, but there's a search box at the top.

These do all come with the disclaimer that nothing on the site should be considered legal advice, etc. so you probably still want to consult with an attorney for some of what you'll find, but for those documents you'll probably write yourself, like a privacy policy on your site, you can find good examples and starting points.

[KristineS]

Hmm, interesting. I don't know that I'd trust what's there for something really important, but as a starting point I think it would be a great help. Sometimes finding the starting point for these types of documents is the hardest part.

[vangogh]

Yeah I'm with you. You might not want to trust certain kinds of documents, but I think there would be plenty that would make for great starting points for your own documents. Some of the things I saw listed are pretty standard like wills and even some of the freelance contracts. Some of the documents for web designers were created and/or submitted by the AIGA (American Institute of Graphics Arts), which the professional association for designers. I would generally trust the things they submitted.

The idea behind the whole site is the open source aspect. Some of the documents submitted perhaps won't be the best off the bat, but should be quickly improved by the community.

I'm with you though. I wouldn't trust it for everything, but I expect most people can find a few things that would be useful.