Discussion List Disclaimer

Open Bar, Inc. is dedicated to promoting education about the legal rights and responsibilities associated with the development, use and distribution of open source/free software. The purpose of this mailing list is to encourage discussion and collaboration among lawyers on issues relating to open source software development and licensing. This site is not intended to provide legal advice to any individual client or entity, and the use of this site by anyone seeking legal advice as a client is prohibited. This prohibition is necessary in order to enable lawyers to participate in this discussion while fulfilling their obligations under the various ethics rules that govern their profession. Persons who participate in this site are relying on the fact that every individual who visits this site is affirmatively representing to every other participant that they are not seeking legal advice and do not intend for any dialog to form an attorney client relationship. Site users are also representing that posted communications are not privileged or confidential and that all posted communications may be freely copied or distributed without attribution and that such copying or distribution will not violate the rights of any third party.

Furthermore, the informal discussion that occurs on this site will be, by its very nature, inexact and easily misunderstood out of context. Thus all visitors to this site agree that it would be inappropriate and potentially misleading to use any statement that might appear to be attributable to a particular attorney to contradict, impeach or to represent a position taken by any attorney or law firm. Also, Open Bar expects participants to treat each other with respect and dignity, consistent with Open Bar's Guiding Principles (see http://www.open-bar.org/guiding.html). In other words, our discussions are intended for open, honest and helpful communications -- not flames.

Attorneys are bound by oath to uphold the Federal and State court systems. Attorneys are trained to use the adversarial process to advance their client's cause. The open source community, however, has shown us that creative work that was previously assumed to be best performed in a competitive environment may be better accomplished in a spirit of cooperation and community. This web site is an experiment to see if the same may be true of some aspects of the legal profession. Rather than wait for litigation to provide guidance years after issues are first raised, perhaps a community dialog may prove to be helpful in avoiding litigation or in shaping the questions presented for litigation so as to improve the usefulness of the outcome and the quality of the decision making.

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Discussion List Disclaimer Changes

This policy was created or last amended on January 19, 2006.