Contractual non-screwage agreement

Today I was reminded of some legalese I put into an employment contract at one of my startups, because the person who had been employed under said contract has a friend who wanted to copy some of the legalese for use at his own company.  Since the contract was, in theory, confidential, he wanted to check with me first before sharing the text.

The parties agree to not screw each other over, to not do stupid shit, to not give away each others’ secrets (if you don’t know what’s a secret, you should ask first), and to not use the term “nyah nyah” to refer to any aspect of their business or personal relationships, even in their heads, upon penalty of death.  Contractor agrees not to start any new business or activities intended to compete with the Company, nor to solicit the Company’s customers to switch to any competing product except with the express written permission of the Company.

Naturally I told him that legalese is generally considered not to be copyrightable for the same reason C header files are considered not to be copyrightable.

Warning: this is not legal advice.  If this had been legal advice, I would be sending you a bill for it.