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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

#71

Post by xvilka »

alexopensource wrote: post #37
p_l wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

European Union (and some states connecting with the same infrastructure, like Switzerland), have standardized formats as well as defined CAs that provide certificates for "qualified" signatures, which have the same legal weight as if you had a printed document with physical signature. DocuSign supports those mainly through some interop connections where, for example, a qualified signature vendor provides an API that…

You are right, that is precisely the route we will also have to take for certain regions. For example in India, there are only 3 entities that are authorized by the government to enable Aadhaar based e-signature. We will have to integrate with any of those in order to be compliant. We have already started working in this direction.

Similar approach would be for signing documents in China.

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

#72

Post by ian0 »

baz00 wrote: post #46
tiahura wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DocuSign doesn't provide anything other than convenience. Generally, in the law, either a signature must be notarized or it doesn't. Docusign isn't a notary, it's really just an electronic document courier. If the legitimacy of a signature is challenged, Docusign isn't going to hire a forensic expert to testify that John Smith was actually the person who logged in and clicked the link. All they can say is that someon…

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

An optional paid feature that not many people seem to use isnt a deal breaker really.

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

#73

Post by dboreham »

29athrowaway wrote: post #55

This is similar to creating an open source nuclear waste management solution. Why would you want to store nuclear waste? Think about it. Even if you can, is that really what you want? Forever? There are probably more incentives and less legal liability storing nuclear waste than sensitive documents. It's not that other companies cannot do it, it's that nobody wants to do it.

Neutron star of risk.

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

#75

Post by webmobdev »

hardwaresofton wrote: post #74

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...

Shouldn't be surprising as it is the only OSS license that protects your right to repair by guaranteeing source code availability. FSF doesn't get enough credit for their foresight.

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

#76

Post by Projectiboga »

kemitchell wrote: post #60
yodon wrote: 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…

I haven't researched the law here in a while, but my general impression the last time I did was that there isn't much in the way of legal requirements for signing things digitally beyond the federal ESIGN Act, general principles of state contract law, and the smattering of very particular kinds of transactions that require processes like notarization or recording. For everyday deals between the vast majority of peopl…

Supreme Court said you can agree to things online awhile ago.

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

#77

Post by j45 »

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 made open source signature tool.

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

#78

Post by hardwaresofton »

webmobdev wrote: post #75
hardwaresofton wrote: post #74

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...

Shouldn't be surprising as it is the only OSS license that protects your right to repair by guaranteeing source code availability. FSF doesn't get enough credit for their foresight.

Yeah, and a while ago there seemed to be people who didn't think it was F/OSS, and wanted to avoid it because it might reduce the likelihood of someone contributing.

One thing I do think that people misunderstand is that a company can absolutely take your project and run it as a service -- they just have to contribute code back if/when they modify it.

The real canary is requiring signed CLAs.

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

#79

Post by calvinmorrison »

yodon wrote: 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…

Close, the whole point of docusign is to avoid all of that by, one, paying docusign to solve those problems, and two because docusign is a "neutral" 3rd party who has good housekeeping records compared to "Opensign" where a self hosted sleazy hacker may decide he wants to fudge the datestamps on the signatures etc.

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

#80

Post by webmobdev »

hardwaresofton wrote: post #78
webmobdev wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shouldn't be surprising as it is the only OSS license that protects your right to repair by guaranteeing source code availability. FSF doesn't get enough credit for their foresight.

Yeah, and a while ago there seemed to be people who didn't think it was F/OSS, and wanted to avoid it because it might reduce the likelihood of someone contributing. One thing I do think that people misunderstand is that a company can absolutely take your project and run it as a service -- they just have to contribute code back if/when they modify it. The real canary is requiring signed CLAs.

True. Someone here in another comment has already pointed out that this project's CLA demands that all submissions have to be under the MIT license! This seems shady and can be perceived as an attempt to "steal" code in the future (MIT licensed code can be incorporated into xGPL license code, but it doesn't prevent the original license holder of the xGPL product to close source the product in the future. If the contributed code was also AGPL, the project managers would have to get permission from all submitters to close source a project or would be forced to remove their code from the product).
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