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Show HN: OpenSign – Open source alternative to DocuSign

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Re: Show HN: OpenSign – Open source alternative to DocuSign

#141
post #77

This looks great. If there’s anyone familiar with this or from the product team would sincerely appreciate any insights on this scenario. Looking at the AGPL license, where would the licensing prevent or impact building an independent source code plug-in to integrate n to a piece of software that calls the hosted service via API, or an unmodified self-hosted copy? For me it helps spread awareness and use of a well ma…

Can you please clarify or provide more context regarding your question?

Re: Show HN: OpenSign – Open source alternative to DocuSign

#143
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Um, no. They do full ID verification as well. If you pay for it.

Where is that required? Maybe POAs? At least Florida and Georgia real estate law (the only ones I'm familiar with) don't require anything of the sort for any of the paperwork (before closing).

And my memory of Florida law (when I was signing an apartment rental contract 4 years ago) was that any electronic signature agreed to by the contracting parties was valid. So I simply typed my name in the contract, emailed it to my landlord, and we were done.

Of course, I also used https:/.opentimestamps.org to store the hash of our contract on bitcoin's block chain, because that way we both had proof that the contract existed in a certain form on that date. (I never needed that proof, because he was a good landlord, and I paid rent on time.)

Re: Show HN: OpenSign – Open source alternative to DocuSign

#144
post #2

My understanding (possibly incorrect) is that competing with DocuSign is hard because of the need to follow obscure state and National laws (many of which are defined by case law rather than published law) in order for the signatures to be legally binding. Is that the case? And if so, is there evidence OpenSign has done this kind of SME research to make sure the electronic signatures are legally binding, or is this m…

Your overall understanding is correct. People pay DocuSign to "think" of everything for them (which is not at all bad, it just comes at a cost). Depending on the space, you have to deal with crazy laws that no one in their right mind would know about (nor think to even consider). Essentially, "no one ever got fired for signing with DocuSign" (play on IBM). I'm late to the party here, but if the authors want real worl…

Not OP, but would love to see those real world examples.

Re: Show HN: OpenSign – Open source alternative to DocuSign

#146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where is that required? Maybe POAs? At least Florida and Georgia real estate law (the only ones I'm familiar with) don't require anything of the sort for any of the paperwork (before closing).

And my memory of Florida law (when I was signing an apartment rental contract 4 years ago) was that any electronic signature agreed to by the contracting parties was valid. So I simply typed my name in the contract, emailed it to my landlord, and we were done. Of course, I also used https:/.opentimestamps.org to store the hash of our contract on bitcoin's block chain, because that way we both had proof that the contr…

While probably enough to prove it existed, you'd probably need to pay a lot for an expert witness to testify to "hash of file on blockchain means it existed" if you did have to go to court over the existence of the contract.

Re: Show HN: OpenSign – Open source alternative to DocuSign

#147

Until my signing a contract means signing it and a checksum with my private key ... this whole space is flawed.

Why not make that your signature? Could you like, sign the current date with a private key, and write the result into the signature box?

That only works if the other party is capable of verifying it. Also how do you tie people to keys? Have the government issue them?

Re: Show HN: OpenSign – Open source alternative to DocuSign

#148

The future of open source continues to be AGPL. [EDIT]: referring to (my own) article: https://vadosware.io/post/the-future-of-free-and-open-source...

AGPL still allows somebody else to offer your software as a paid service. This is dangerous for a lot of business models.

Re: Show HN: OpenSign – Open source alternative to DocuSign

#149

Doesn't contemporary PDF (for example) have something like a built in interpreter? How do you stop someone from, say, making a document that changes the wording after a certain date and then signing it?

I don't think PDF can do that.
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