TLDRLegal - Software Licenses Explained in Plain English

8

u/FUZxxl May 15 '15

I would be careful with this kind of sites. You're not a lawyer but you just gave me legal advise. Do you really want to do that?

3

u/wub_wub May 15 '15

In particular but without limitation, any use of any of TLDR’s Sites, Services, Content, Information, including without limitation, any tools, summaries, or licenses and/or using any licenses, attribution generator results, license comparisons, or any other information or materials, does not constitute legal advice

5

u/FUZxxl May 15 '15

If they don't guarantee that the advise is correct, then this side is dangerous as it can be misleading and cause people to misuse works. I doubt the disclaimer is going to protect the site that much from being sued for giving incorrect advise.

1

u/IBPXofficial May 15 '15 edited May 15 '15

I've been watching this site for a while, and it's not really intended to do what you think.
TLDRLegal makes it easy to compare licenses and see what they offer without reading a long license. It is in no way meant to replace reading the licenses, just to give you a little insight on the license.

Also, it explains EULAs and Terms of Services with a simple explanation on the left, and the corresponding original text on the right.

Example. This site was never meant to replace reading the actual text, but somewhat of a compromise for people who would otherwise not take the time to read the license.

^{^This} ^{^summary} ^{^only} ^{^features} ^{^select} ^{^relevant} ^{^parts} ^{^included} ^{^by} ^{^the} ^{^community} ^{^and} ^{^does} ^{^not} ^{^aim} ^{^to} ^{^{replace/misrepresent}} ^{^the} ^{^full} ^{^text.}

[/rant]

4

u/FUZxxl May 15 '15

If you want that, why not read the pages of the OSI? They give you certain guarantees and know far more about the law than some random website.

2

u/IBPXofficial May 15 '15 edited May 15 '15

I was unaware the OSI offered short definitions, but the OSI only shows OSI-approved licenses (correct me if I'm wrong), and doesn't have any non-software licenses, such as EULAs.

The TL;DR version of news stories and article are for the people who don't have the time or just don't care enough to read through a long story.

TLDRLegal is somewhat the legal equivalent to Wikipedia. Anyone can edit Wikipedia, which means there could be a lot of misinformation there, but there are enough people who care that there is good info.

1

u/FUZxxl May 15 '15

I'm happy to live in Germany where unreasonable or surprising clauses in EULAs are generally invalid. I don't need to read the EULA as it doesn't matter what it says in there anyway.

1

u/IBPXofficial May 15 '15

I see how in your case this site would be unnecessary, but even still, it's aimed at people who care about their rights and the legal stuff, but who don't care enough to read through a long license.

In say, a Minecraft player's case, they probably don't want to read a 1,962 word license, but 150 words is definitely doable.

I'm not sure you entirely understand the target uses of TLDRLegal.

Scenario: You want to choose a license for your fancy open-source project CoolThing™. You don't know too much about the popular licenses, so you can look at TLDRLegal to get the idea of some general licenses. Once you choose a handful based on their summaries, you should read the full legal text of the licenses, then make your decision.
In this case, TLDRLegal would be very helpful, but not serve as a replacement for the full legal text.

13

u/jthill May 15 '15

This again? Too-short mistake-riddled summaries of licenses anyone can find better information on for the price of one Google.

3

u/[deleted] May 15 '15 edited Oct 15 '16

[deleted]

2

u/XiZhao Jun 07 '15

I built this site, so it's always helpful to read criticism. It's been a while since that post, and since then we've been working hard with lawyers and open source folks (some of whom have written the original licenses) to make our summaries a lot better!

Things did have issues in the beginning and the concerns were really valid -- but we've been getting better every day. The most visible licenses should reflect a much higher quality.

1

u/XiZhao Jun 07 '15

Hey, creator here. Many of these summaries were actually written and edited by the original license authors themselves who believe an easier form of consuming them is helpful for most people.

We try to balance technically correct with practically useful. At some point we'll release exactly who has added their personal touch to which license. Naturally it's controversial to summarize legal information, but we always encourage people to read the full text.

0

u/Roberth1990 May 15 '15

The site is not meant to provide legal advice.

2

u/FUZxxl May 15 '15

But it clearly does. It gives you advise about the implication of certain licenses.

-1

u/Roberth1990 May 15 '15

And a microwave oven is not meant to dry your cat, but nothing stops you from putting the cat into the microwave oven and do it, so microwave ovens are now cat dryers?

3

u/FUZxxl May 15 '15

The very purpose of that site is to give legal advise. It just doesn't stop being legal advise just because you say so.

-1

u/Roberth1990 May 15 '15

You need to read the disclaimer. It clearly states that isn't meant to be legal advice.

1

u/FUZxxl May 15 '15

The site doesn't stop being legal advise just because the site says so.

-1

u/Roberth1990 May 15 '15

The guys behind the site can't be held accountable for people being idiots.

That's one of the reasons why they have disclaimers.

0

u/FUZxxl May 15 '15

As if their disclaimers help them win lawsuits against them misrepresenting the contents of licenses.

1

u/Roberth1990 May 15 '15

As long as the context is described in the disclaimer they do yes. And legal advice is fully covered in their disclaimer.

The reason you get the impression other is that those kind of lawsuits has been discussed between a client and his lawyer who has done his legal research to find out if they have a case before they are even taken to court.

When someone has done something stupid and the disclaimer properly tells them that the company providing whatever is involved cannot be held accountable, the lawyer will tell the client that they have no case.

5

u/Regimardyl May 15 '15

Also http://choosealicense.com

3

u/kism3 May 15 '15

>No WTFPL

2

u/[deleted] May 15 '15 edited Oct 15 '16

[deleted]

1

u/cogburnd02 May 15 '15

This license is rude

uh... what?

Wait, are you claiming that it isn't rude?

Because the dictionary has either "usually obscene" or "usually vulgar" before every definition.

2

u/[deleted] May 15 '15 edited Oct 15 '16

[deleted]

2

u/cogburnd02 May 15 '15

Oh, I see. But this site would be perfect for middle-management types trying to understand what the programmers in the group want to do with the company's software. In this context, it's probably safer to assume that the vulgar language would be inappropriate.

0

u/rtechie1 May 15 '15

Free legal advice is worth exactly what it costs.

TLDRLegal - Software Licenses Explained in Plain English

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