The quotidian is a utility, not an asset

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Legal eagles love the idea that standard, boilerplate, tedious terms that make up the lion’s share of commercial legal discourse should be regarded as a common utility; a free public resource, and not some secret sauce that keeps battalions of legal eagles in well-paid but soul-destroying work. Everyone — not just lawyers, come to think of it — likes to believe herself special, privy to something critical; dangerous; delicate — information that, should it fall into the wrong hands, may wreak great ill upon its owner or the poor unsuspecting random.

See also

• Gizmo pelmanism
• Intellectual property