There's no point in me having you sign an NDA if I don't plan to sue you should you violate it.
I'm asking you to sign a document so I can sue you later. What do you get in return?
This guy says he's giving out free advice to strangers, expecting nothing in return. There's very little upside for him. So why should he take the risk, how would it benefit him?
I think your interpretation of "sign a document so I can sue you later" is pretty inaccurate. Someone is disclosing an idea and wants to protect themselves in case you decide their idea is worth implementing. I don't think it's an unrealistic request. Furthermore, most NDAs I've seen don't really protect much of anything.
The downside of saying 'no' is that you will never (or rarely) have them as a potential client. Maybe you have clients throwing themselves at you, but in my neck of the woods, clients aren't exactly a dime a dozen. I'm not going to sign anything that I feel would put me or my business at unreasonable risk, but no NDA I've ever signed has been worded that unrealistically.
To make a blanket statement that I'll never sign your NDA and NDAs are a dumb waste of time sounds like a difficult person to deal with right off the bat.
It's called a "non disclosure" agreement not a non compete agreement. What you're signing up for is "I won't disclose your content to a third party" So it's fraught with risk. You have to take that conversation and bottle it away and not mention it for 3-5 years to anyone else in case they think it's a good idea and pivot or start a company to go do that.
You sign that agreement, have one coffee, never hear from the guy again. Two years later you join on as an advisor to a company that does something similar to that startup and they're claiming you must be disclosing what you learned from them to this new startup! Far fetched but if you sign 20 - 30 NDA's a year because you're actively helping people you will get bit on the butt but some neurotic founder at some point.
>To make a blanket statement that I'll never sign your NDA ...
Maybe you should actually read what the author wrote. He didn't make a blanket statement. The author refuses to sign an NDA when he is approached for advice about some idea somebody may have. This is perfectly reasonable. Why should he open himself up to liability for giving (free) advice and guidance over coffee?
On the other hand, if he is approached in a more formal setting, such as when he is hired or contracted out by the party, then it would be unreasonable for him to refuse an NDA.
So, I have lots of ideas. You want to share your idea with me, and I sign an NDA prior to hearing it. Turns out I already had that idea, and with that NDA, haven't you basically just stolen my idea from me?
No thanks. I am not a lawyer, I don't trust my ability to parse an NDA and accurately and confidently predict exactly what is covered and what is not, nor do I want to predict whether you tie me up in some bullshit lawsuit that will go nowhere but waste my time and money.
No. I just don't see what is in it for me relative to the risks.
Did you read the article? The author is talking about NDA's from people who want to discuss startup ideas with him, not NDA's from clients or potential clients.
Wow, so someone would sign an NDA for the purpose of having a free consult and nothing further? How is this some sort of bold statement that is making it to the front page of hacker news? "I won't incur risk for nothing in return". So brave.
Many relationships start with potential clients shopping around. They get a free consult. If that's not what this guy is referring to, then my mistake. I wouldn't sign the NDA either, but I could just as easily named this article "I won't stab myself in the eye".
I'm sure you will think I'm difficult to deal with then, but I actually take it one step further.
If a person starts to tell me about an idea and I know that we're in the same industry, I will sometimes stop him and let him know that he shouldn't tell me anything that he wants to keep for himself. When you're faced with a certain problem, it's very likely that your solution will look like somebody else's and I don't want anybody upset with me because I "stole" their idea.
Signing an NDA puts you in a bad position and even if there is no real legal threat because of vague formulation or whatever, you risk making enemies which in itself can cost a lot of time one way or another.
Signing randomly sourced contracts seems like a bad idea. If he really wanted to work with people who like NDA's, maybe he should have his own lawyer draft a general purpose one for him to use in these situations.
