2007-05-17 Reducing Legal Complexity

When you are doing something you sometimes don't know that you are doing it.. just like Mister Jourdain1. We made GooDiff it was just for monitoring some policies of web service provider on the Internet. But when we read the recent comment from Alex Schroeder : GooDiff helps navigate the byzantine labyrinth, but I’m still hoping for somebody to tear it down in the first place. He is right : monitoring the legal changes on service providers' web site is just a small part for understanding and managing the legal complexity. We must act to reduce the overall legal complexity of those policies published by the services provider. Michael and I have the idea to extend a little bit the GooDiff scope to propose simplified and generalized legal policies.

The idea is not new : Creative Commons is doing the same regarding licensing of copyrighted works for sometimes ago. The main issue I have with the Creative Commons is the drifting from generalized license (some free and some non-free license) to localized licenses. The idea of a generalized and worldwide accepted license is better as you don't have to focus on the national detail of the law. The GNU General Public License is a success with a globally accepted free software license without moving to the glory detail of the national laws. We could start a simple to read privacy policy with two or three alternatives for the service providers. We should try to help a little bit to improve the understanding of the legal framework for the citizen without the help of a lawyer. The major issue is to come with a privacy policy valid for the vast majority of countries… but that worths a try.

Tags: goodiff copyright eula legal complexity policies

geo: Les Bulles, Chiny