Hi. <br><br>Sorry that it is so slow for me to get fully involved. <br><br>I would like to start discussion from the concept. <br>Without understanding the general concept, the discussion can go sideways quite easily. <br>
<br>The main aim of Contract Exchange is to define a way to exchange the "(possibly) Legally Binding Contract" between parties. <br><br>Thus, defining what should be in that Contract Document is one of the main task of this WG. <br>
<br>The other task is to define a protocol that enables parties to achieve the creation and exchange of such contract documents. <br><br>From my experiecne, a contract generally has the following in it. <br><br>Contract ID (uri)<br>
Party A (uri)<br>Party B (uri)<br>Signatory of Party A (text)<br> Signatory of Party B (text) <br> Contact Address of Party A (text or uri?)<br>Contact Address of Party B (text or uri?)<br>Main Content of this Contract<br>
- What is to be provided (text)<br>- What is received in return (text)<br>Term and Termination<br> - Term / Validity Period of the Contract (Datetime-Datetime)<br> - Termination (text)<br>- Survival of Certain Terms (text)<br>
Damages<br>- Explanation (text)<br>- max amount from A to B (number?)<br>- max amount from B to A (number?)<br>Non Disclosure<br>- How to specify (text)<br>- How Long (datetime-datetime)<br> Relationship to other Contracts (text)<br>
Signature of the Signatory of Party A (text)<br>Date of the Signature A (datetime)<br>Signature of the Signatory of Party B (text)<br>Date of the Signature B (datetime)<br> <br>Is this generally good or are there anything that are necessary in addition to these? <br>
<br>Should we specify the schema for these or should we keep it to bare minimal and let everything else be represented as text? <br>Should we try to incorporate LegalXML etc. <br><br>These are the kind of questions that I have in mind for the "Contract as a document" portion. <br>
<br>Fortunately, we have Scott Blackmer in this WG who is a knowledgeable lawyer, so Scott could cast some insight on this issue. <br><br>Then, there will be the protocol for exchanging this along with some technical requirement such as inclusion of the public key of the parties. <br>
I will touch on these on a separate post. <br><br>Please discuss. <br><br>-- <br>Nat Sakimura (=nat)<br><a href="http://www.sakimura.org/en/">http://www.sakimura.org/en/</a><br>