By Erez Zukerman, Download Squad – August 01, 2010 at 01:00PM
Filed under: Business, Security, Humor
FriendDA is not even a website; it’s just a single Web page, pre-formatted for printing. It’s a form, that at first glance appears to be a standard NDA (or other legal form).
But when you read past the first WHEREAS, the whole thing becomes much clearer. I quote:
WHEREAS I possess a bright idea that I am choosing to disclose to you, The Advisor, with the mutual understanding that you are my friend and that you will not screw me.
The FriendDA then goes on to elaborate on the “manners of screwing” (their wording, not mine), and also makes it clear that it has no legal validity whatsoever.
So why make it, then? It’s supposed to be “slightly more than a hearty handshake” – meaning, if a friend of yours agrees to the FriendDA, you should feel secure enough to share your awesome new start-up-worthy idea with them. I find this interesting, culturally. Reading the original blog post which announced FriendDA back in 2008, you can see people are in two minds in the comments. Some think it’s quite silly (which I can understand), but some seem quite excited about it. What’s also interesting is that the author, Rands (pseudonym for Michael Lopp), is a senior engineering manager at Apple, at least according to Wikipedia. And we all know Apple’s stance (and ferocity) on legal matters.
So … is this proof that anything you put online will eventually find an audience, especially if you’re a published author? Or is it clever socio-political commentary on the litigious state of current American society as reflected by steeply declining moral values? Weigh in in the comments.
FriendDA is a totally non-binding NDA for friends (tech culture) originally appeared on Download Squad on Sun, 01 Aug 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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United States – Wikipedia – Apple – Author – Rands