Template for construction contracts

Ferren Xia and I have prepared a template for contracts and agreements between a client and a service provider such as an architect or builder. This hopefully useful contract template is ready for Law Society members and others to critique and suggest improvements. If other Law Society contributors post their own templates, we'd be able to compare different approaches.

Ideally this process will result in a library of templates useful to architects and builders, particularly newcomers who may lack experience with documents intended to protect intellectual property, including that of third parties such as texture suppliers.

Our premise: if documents that pointedly support IP rights become routinely used in SL, the social norms concerning IP rights may shift sufficiently to deter casual violation of these rights. Non-casual violation of IP rights should be deterred by TOS enforcement.


You can find the template thread in the Law Society group forum here

Sounds useful.

I take it these are legally airtight boilerplate contracts that if signed with a witness in RL would be fairly enforceable? *takes a quick look*

Adam, the principal discussion of these templates are in the Law Society Group Forum, a link to which is in my signature.

There were three comments on the contract template when I last checked the Law Society forum -- guess most people think it's a dry subject. : )

But a friend drew my attention to a thread in General, which I almost never have time to read. Apparently something went very wrong with the Stagecoach Island project. Content creators were paid abnormally small sums for their work, Wells Fargo left SL, and some of that content appears to have surfaced in Active Worlds, much to the astonishment of its creators.

The Stagecoach Island debacle highlights the need for SL contracts containing language that specifically protects intellectual property. Notarization, using services such as Nota Bene in SL, and enforcement -- the missing piece -- are also required.

For anyone who missed it, the thread in General is here

The thread on Stagecoach Island is extremely interesting, and the discussion there raises a number of very important points:

1. contracts inside SL and outside SL are entirely different creatures - the contract template needs to be updated to indicate that any agreement inside SL gives no right to IP outside SL unless explicitly stated.

2. rights to contract need to be more clearly defined. In RL, you cannot contract on behalf of another person or a group unless there is some binding legal agreement explicitly assigning you that right. It is much looser in SL, and the experience of content creators in dealing at second hand with Wells Fargo through either Bedazzled or LL (according to their comments) shows additional wording is also needed in the template to explicitly disavow any right of contracting on behalf of the parties in RL.

3. It is not clear from the many comments in the Stagecoach Island thread who made what agreements on behalf of whom, and what role LL played in the whole process. However, it does point out that LL has a duty to enforce section 6.2 of the TOS to protect IP developed within this game. If the actions of any parties, including Wells Fargo, were in contravention of the TOS, LL should take appropriate legal action on behalf of residents involved.