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Y Combinator’s “Open Source” Legal Documents: Up, Down, Up Again—Thank the Lawyers

It’s not easy posting legal documents: the lawyers get nervous. At least, that’s what happened to Y Combinator. Last Wednesday, August 13, the unique venture firm/incubator made a batch of boilerplate legal documents developed for its own startups freely available on its website—”open sourcing” (their term, not mine) them in hopes they would make closing deals easier for entrepreneurs and investors alike.

The day after I posted a story lauding the move—after all, entrepreneurs typically pick up the tab for both their lawyer and the investors’ counsel—a reader commented (thank you, Laurent) that they were no longer up on the Y Combinator website. Turns out YC’s lawyers made them take down the documents until some disclaimer language was added. I just got word from YC partner Jessica Livingston that the disclaimer language has been added, and the documents are back up. You can find them here.

Bob is Xconomy's founder and editor in chief. You can e-mail him at bbuderi@xconomy.com, call him at 617.500.5926, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/bbuderi.

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