What do I have to lose by asking?

I never implied that you had anything to lose; I think it's an interesting question.

I asked, "why would they comply with your request" because I was interested if you thought it made sense for them to do so.

I suppose it comes down to whether they gain more through such a release via others contributing back and improving the process, paperwork, etc. while keeping in mind the insight and potential efficiencies provided to competitors in doing so.

Has anyone tried an open source/creative commons type licensing and repository for standard legal documents? Does such a thing exist?

Series AA Equity Financing Documents have been open sourced by Y Combinator.

http://www.ycombinator.com/seriesaa.html

Highly "optimized" means they can incorporate lots of companies in a short amount of time.

The value of YC lies in the advice and expertise of PG, RTM, TB, JL ... and the YC alum network; probably not in their ability to get startups incorporated 1 week faster than the competitor.

Publishing these documents would be an inconvenience, not a death blow to YC. By asking, I'm hoping this get upvoted, others also post comments requesting the same, and maybe this'll push YC over the energy barrier to organize + document the process (after they realize how many would be founders they will help).

[In my case, I have iPhone apps ready; and would like limited liability before releasing them (in this day & age, when people sue each other for the silliest reasons)]

For terms of use:

http://en.wordpress.com/tos/

http://automattic.com/privacy/

http://ownterms.pbwiki.com/

Though US-centric of course.

> Has anyone tried an open source/creative commons type licensing and repository for standard legal documents? Does such a thing exist?

I'm building something like that at http://www.firstdrafter.com - a freemium site.

>What do I have to lose by asking?

The spirit of a go-getter! Rock on man, good luck!

Anyone running an accelerator will certainly have people around that understand how to set up a corporation.

The programming equivalent would be trying to fight off competition by not showing them your ~/.emacs.

i think YC/PG has shared many things here and more they shared the more they have become popular, they have got more success, more press and more reputation & respects among startups, VCs and angels... so I think some tips & hints for how to start a starups in a right legal way is in fact going to help the whole startup community...