5 Legal Questions to Ask Before Turning in An Assignment

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Turning in an assignment is the goal of pretty much every freelancer. It’s the moment where they can send their invoice, collect payment and, generally make a living. If you don’t reach this point regularly, you’ll likely soon find yourself looking for another career.

That being said, the moment you turn in your assignment is also something of a point of no return. Once you send the email, share the Google Doc or otherwise turn in what you have completed, you’ve not only submitted that work for revenue, you’ve also distributed it to a third party, an important step legally and it is generally the final step before the work is sent out to the much broader public.

As such, before you click “submit”, it’s worthwhile to take a moment, evaluate your work and make sure that you don’t find yourself in any legal trouble for your work.

After all, the last thing you want is for something you submit to come back and bite you and/or your client after it’s published online. With that in mind, here are five questions you should ask every time you get ready to submit a new article, just to make sure you’re on the right side of the law. [Read more…]

5 Legal Concerns To Watch in 2011

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FireworksAs we get ready to turn over the new year, we get a chance to both evaluate what 2010 meant for us and what we want 2011 to look like.

But while we each are making our personal evaluations and decisions, we also have other shifts and changes around us. For example, the Internet is a constantly-changing environment, with trends, sites and companies rising and falling in a strage chorus, all of it affecting our profession.

Another area is the law and legal issues. Though it has something of a reputation for being fixed and static, nothing could be farther from the truth. As the Internet has changed, the law has struggled to keep up and court decisions, legislation and lobbying have all worked to make the legal climate an ever-changing one.

With that in mind, what are some of the legal issues that you can expect to see in 2011? It’s almost impossible to say but, looking back at 2010, we can make a few educated guesses of where things might be heading.

On that note, here are five legal areas to watch in the new year. [Read more…]

Why Social Media is No Legal Safe Haven

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One of the reasons that the Web has become a legal minefield is because it deals with laws and ethics that, prior to its creation, almost no one had any reason to know.

Before the Web, the only reason to understand libel, privacy, copyright, trademark and other areas commonly associated with mass media law was if you were a journalist, a publisher or someone else involved in some form of media. The average person just didn’t have the means to really reach a large audience, not without filtration, making the laws fairly pointless to know.

But now, with the Web, anyone can reach an audience the size of the largest newspaper or TV station, but without any of the understanding of the laws that govern such distribution. That’s a big part of why I write this column here on Freelance Writing Jobs.

But there is yet another problem. The Web often times leads one to have a false sense of privacy. Social networking and social media are supposedly all about one’s friends and personal connections, not the larger world. However, the law, in many areas, doesn’t make a strong distinction between those two things as, in many areas, the difference between lawful and unlawful isn’t based on the number of people a message is sent to.

Here are just a few examples of why social media can still be a legal minefield, even if it feels like a safe haven.

100 or a 1,000,000

In most areas of media law, the law isn’t concerned with how many people received the message, but rather, what the content of the message.

For example, with copyright, burning a copy of a CD and giving it to a friend is a copyright infringement the same as sharing it on a major file sharing network. The only difference is the amount of damages one would likely be able to claim.

The same is true for libel and privacy law. Though the damage done might be greater with a broader audience, especially with libel, all one has to prove is that a 3rd party saw the libelous statement.

In fact, with libel, social media can actually be worse in many ways than publishing on the broader Web as the message is targeted at those the subject knows, possibly causing more direct harm.

In short, as far as the law is concerned, the only thing that changes when you post something on your social networking account versus the broader Web is the amount of damage. But given the high damages often won for even small missteps, that should not provide much comfort.

Privacy? What Privacy?

The one potential benefit to sharing such materials via social media is that it is much less likely the person who would take offense would every find out.

For example, if you share a copyrighted work on your Facebook profile, the odds of the copyright holder finding out are much less than if you posted it on the broader Web. The enclosed nature of Facebook, especially with good privacy settings, offers a shield against search engines and other detection techniques.

However, the idea of privacy on the social web is, in reality, only an illusion. Even if you post something only to your closest friends and even if the security is flawless, nothing can stop the people who receive your message from spreading it farther without your permission.

Sites such as Lamebook specialize in taking semi-private conversations and posting them to the larger Web (though it removes personally identifying information). These conversations are, usually, submitted by friends of the person the site is poking fun at.

Ben Franklin once famously said that, “Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead” and that truism holds fast on the social Web too. Anything of great interest will leak out and, as the person who put it out first, you would have at least the lion’s share of the responsibility. Though repeating or even linking to libel is a violation in many cases, the original speaker, whether copyright, libel or privacy violations are involved, usually takes the brunt of the burden.

In short, unlike Vegas, what happens in your social network rarely stays there, especially if it is interesting enough to repost. The nature of the Web as a copy machine not only works against you when trying to control who copies your public work, but who copies your private ones as well.

Unfortunately, both can get you in legal trouble.

Bottom Line

There’s a temptation to treat one’s social networking profiles as a kind of digital “home base”, a place to relax, be among friends and let one’s hair down. Unfortunately, we have to remember that social media, both in terms of the law and in terms of your privacy, are still very much a public place.

Any legal missteps that you make on your social networking profiles, no matter how private they may seem or even be set to, can come back to haunt you and often do.

After all, people are semi-regularly fired on the grounds of their Facebook comments and a growing number of people are being sued or evenconvicted criminally for Facebook defamation.

Facebook may provide greater privacy protections but it is by no means a safe place to post unlawful messages. The law doesn’t make much distinction between the number of people who see a message and the privacy that these networks promise are really an illusion.

You can’t stop your friends from sharing that which they “like” so it is best, from both a legal and an ethical standpoint, to treat your social media interactions the same as you would any other activities you do online.

Your Questions

Have a question about the law and freelance writing? Either leave a comment below or contact me directly if you wish to keep the information private (However, please mention that it is a suggestion for Freelance Writing Jobs). This column will be determined largely by your suggestions and questions so let me know what you want to know about.

Disclosure

I am not an attorney and nothing in this article should be taken as legal advice.

How to Avoid Legal Trouble With Your Portfolio

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Every freelance writer should have a good online portfolio, a place to showcase their best works and examples of the kinds of writing that they do.

However, creating a portfolio is not as simple as choosing the best writing that you’ve done for your clients and putting up copies or even snippets on your site. Not only might this be considered bad form on the part of your clients, but there may be legal issues that prevent you being able to do so.

So as many of us begin to look toward the new year and seek out ways to revamp our businesses for 2011, it’s important that we do so with care and respect.

Simply put, the best portfolio in the world won’t do any good if it’s been taken offline for copyright or other legal violations. So it’s worth taking a few moments to understand our legal obligations when assembling our portfolios and how we can best stay out of trouble. [Read more…]

5 Simple Legal Mistakes Freelancers Commonly Make

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Mousetrap pictureFor a freelance writer, there is a lot of legal ground to cover. Copyright, trademark, privacy, libel and contract law are just some of the areas any freelancer needs to be familiar with to ensure that their rights are protected and they stay on the right side of the law.

The reason is that, in addition to signing deals and getting payment for a service, you are creating content that will be distributed to a global audience. This puts a lot of responsibility on you and everything you right to be accurate, non-infringing and non-invasive.

Still, we are all human and we all make mistakes. Combine that with the fact that many writers don’t fully understand the law or are misled by misconceptions, there is a lot of potential for danger.

With that in mind, here are just some of the more common legal mistakes freelancers made and, more importantly, how to avoid them.

1. Using Google to Find Stock Images

More and more writing contracts are asking writers to locate images to go along with their posts. Certainly not a challenge, but some freelancers use Google Image Search to find the images they are going to use.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of images in Google are copyright protected and are not available for use in such a manner, at least not without paying for a licensing fee.

To make matters worse, the stock photo industry has been on a very aggressive campaign against copyright infringers, and have threatened tens of thousands of sites over the past few years.

Grabbing the wrong photo could easily cost you more than a job, it could cost you thousands of dollars in settlement costs.

How to Avoid It: Use a free stock photo site such as MorgueFile or Stock.XCHNG. You can also look for Creative Commons-licensed images so long as you ensure your client provides proper attribution.

2. Working with a Bad Contract or No Contract

I discussed the dangers of working without a contract in a previous post but the risks bear repeating.

Whenever you write for someone without a contract, the terms of the agreement are not set in stone and, as a result, if there is a dispute the courts have to look at other conversations between you to find out what both sides intended. As such, you may find yourself giving away rights that you never actually meant to and you also have to go through a lot more hassle to find the boundaries.

However, a bad contract can be just as bad, if not worse. If you sign a contract without reading it, you can give away all rights to a work when you didn’t intend and have no real recourse as it was something you agreed to freely.

How to Avoid It: Always work with a contract and always review them carefully. You don’t have to be a legal expert to read your own contracts but, if you have any questions, definitely put it before someone else for a review.

3. Committing Self-Plagiarism

Self plagiarism isn’t illegal in the sense that it’s copyright infringement. After all, the person who would be suing you for infringement would be yourself.

However, most writing contracts, both written and implied, state that there is a need for the work to be original. If you simply turn in something that was written before, it would be a breach of those terms.

Think about it in this context. If the client wanted something you had written previously, they would have requested to buy the license to the work, not asked for a new assignment to be completed. In that context, simply handing in your old work could be a breach of contract and could be very costly in terms of your reputation.

How to Avoid It: Self-plagiarism is acceptable if your client says its ok but always ask and get clearance before reusing old work. Otherwise, you may find yourself at odds with them fast.

4. Being Defamatory

Defamation (libel and slander) might seem to be easy to avoid, but it is rarely so easy.

Most people believe that if you simply stick to the facts of a case you can easily avoid an allegation of libel. However, for example, if you quote someone out of context you can be sued for libel with a good chance that they will win.

If you do freelance editing you can also create a problem by editing a piece to make someone say something they didn’t intend. Even it being an accident may not be a complete defense because, unless the person is a public figure, they don’t have to prove any malice to have a claim.

How to Avoid It: Always speak the truth and stick to what you can prove. Also, remember that opinion can never be libelous though be careful when presenting facts in a way that may give people the wrong impression about what was said and meant.

5. Invading Privacy

There are many ways freelancers can unwittingly invade someone’s privacy, the easiest is through images. If you take a photo of someone without model release, use of their image in an article, especially if it’s on a site that promotes a product or service, could be a misappropriation of their image.

However, freelancers can also find themselves in hot water for publicly disclosing private facts the public has not legitimate interest in. What constitutes private data can vary from case to case and often depends on what has already been made public, but generally it isn’t wise to disclose might be considered embarrassing, isn’t already public and isn’t newsworthy.

How to Avoid It: Always either work with a legitimate stock photo agency for your photos of people or ensure that you get model releases when using photos where individuals could be identified. When writing about people, make sure to talk about information that is already public, preferably they disclosed by the subject, and don’t publicly post anything that they might see an an invasion, especially if it isn’t truly newsworthy.

Bottom Line

Freelance writing is, quite literally, a legal minefield at times. Fortunately, if you approach the industry with honest intentions and work on understanding the law, most of the major pitfalls can be easily avoided.

But even with that knowledge, many unwittingly step into situations that can get them in a lot of trouble and, though nothing comes of most legal goofs, it only takes one angry person with money and motivation to file a suit and completely ruin your life.

With what’s at stake, it’s worth taking a moment to understand the lay of the land just so you don’t walk into any traps.

Your Questions

Have a question about the law and freelance writing? Either leave a comment below or contact me directly if you wish to keep the information private. This column will be determined largely by your suggestions and questions so let me know what you want to know about.

Disclosure

I am not an attorney and nothing in this article should be taken as legal advice.

My Name is Jonathan Bailey, Let’s Talk Law

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Jonathan Bailey PhotoHello. My name is Jonathan Bailey. As Susan warned earlier this week, I am the new guy here and I wanted to take a moment to both introduce myself and my new column here. I also want to invite you to send me your ideas and questions to help get this column rolling.

So, without any further ado, here’s a little bit of information about me, what my column here is about and how you can help pick the topics that get discussed.

About Me

As a blogger I am best known for my site Plagiarism Today where I blog about copyright and plagiarism issues aimed at bloggers and other small content creators, including freelance writers. I currently work as a copyright and plagiarism consultant, running the small firm CopyByte and also write for various sites including BloggingPro, WhoIsHostingThis and BloggingTips currently. In the past, I’ve also written for The Blog Herald, The European Journalism Centre and several other sites.

I have a degree in Journalism and Mass Communications, where I took a strong interest in mass media law and ethics. Prior to my current blogs, I was primarily a poet and short story author focusing exclusively on creative writing. However, my creative and education backgrounds collided in 2001 when I first discovered that my writing was being widely plagiarized by various people on the Web. I began working to get the cases resolved and, all totaled, have handled some 700 cases of plagiarism involving my content alone.

It was out of this experience I started Plagiarism Today almost five years ago to the day in August 2005. As a New Orleanian, this turned out to be almost “perfect” timing as the site launched mere weeks before Hurricane Katrina. However, if there was a silver lining to the disaster, it was that I threw myself into the site and focused on it completely for the weeks following the storm as I had little else to do and it helped keep me sane during a very trying time.

Since then I have helped hundreds of content creators protect their works on the Web, understand copyright law and either enforce their rights or stay out of trouble when running their sites.

About This Column

Here at FWJ, what I want to do is continue the work I’ve been doing at Plagiarism Today and elsewhere in helping content creators navigate the often murky waters of copyright and other relevant laws. Every week on Friday I’ll be talking about copyright, trademark, privacy and other legal issues that affect freelance writers everywhere.

To be clear, I am not a lawyer and nothing in this or any of my columns should be taken as legal advice. Also, bear in mind that, as a U.S. resident, my knowledge is heavily focused on U.S. law, even though I often do research on the rules in different countries as necessary.

Obviously with my background, this column is going to have a heavy focus on plagiarism and copyright issues, but I also want to talk about other areas of the law that impact freelance writers and to help me decide which issues to cover, I’d like your input on what topics you’d like to see covered.

The Topics You Want

If you have a question about the law and freelance writing, leave a comment below or contact me directly if you want to keep it private. Though my specialty is in copyright, I’ve also dealt with trademark, contract, privacy, libel and other issues as well. If I don’t know the answer, I will work to find out.

I want to make this column as useful as I can for freelance writers everywhere and hopefully help clear up much of the confusion and misinformation that surrounds the law in the digital age.

On that note, I look forward to reading your suggestions and questions for the column and, equally importantly, I’m excited about this new column and the chance to reach out to a new group of creatives and help them make at least some sense of this mad, mad world we all live and work in online.

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