slightly OT: academic legal theory behind the 'human readable' licenses?

Hey, all (but really primarily to the lawyers on the list
-

As I was stumbling through Contracts this morning
(specifically, a
lecture on interpretation of contracts) I was reminded of
the human
readable versions of CC contracts/licenses. The question
that came to
mind: were those inspired by any particular strain of
academic thought
on license legibility/usability? Or did they just come out
of a
general ease-of-use impulse? If there was a strain of
academic thought
on the issue that was inspirational or otherwise important,
any
pointers to where I could start reading?

Thanks in advance- let me know if my question itself is
incomprehensible 
Luis
_______________________________________________
cc-licenses mailing list
cc-licenseslists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-licenses

Luis,

While I don't know if there was any sort of doctrinal
consideration with
the creation of the Commons Deed, I can tell you that at
least in
Scotland we drafted the licences under the requirement of
writing form
contracts in "plain intelligible language"
contained in section 6 of the
the UK's Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations
1999:
http://
www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si1999/19992083.htm

Regards,

Andres

Luis Villa wrote:
> Hey, all (but really primarily to the lawyers on the
list -
>
> As I was stumbling through Contracts this morning
(specifically, a
> lecture on interpretation of contracts) I was reminded
of the human
> readable versions of CC contracts/licenses. The
question that came to
> mind: were those inspired by any particular strain of
academic thought
> on license legibility/usability? Or did they just come
out of a
> general ease-of-use impulse? If there was a strain of
academic thought
> on the issue that was inspirational or otherwise
important, any
> pointers to where I could start reading?
>
> Thanks in advance- let me know if my question itself is
incomprehensible 
> Luis
> _______________________________________________
> cc-licenses mailing list
> cc-licenseslists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-licenses
>   

-- 
Andres Guadamuz
AHRC Research Centre for Studies in
Intellectual Property and Technology Law 
Old College, South Bridge
Edinburgh, EH8 9YL

Tel: 44 (0)131 6509699
Fax: 44 (0)131 6506317
a.guadamuzed.ac.uk
http://www.law.ed.ac.uk
/ahrb/

IP/IT/Medical Law LLM by Distance Learning
http://www.
law.ed.ac.uk/distancelearning/ 


_______________________________________________
cc-licenses mailing list
cc-licenseslists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-licenses