On this episode I talk all about the legal and copyright issues you may come across when producing a podcast and how to avoid them.
Welcome to podcast answers. That's right. This is the show where I help people start
Speaker:and grow their podcasts, answering any podcasting questions along the way. That's right. We
Speaker:are back with a new episode. Happy Thanksgiving to everybody who is in the U.S. I hope you're
Speaker:spending some time with your families. And if you're talking about podcasting and you're
Speaker:thinking about starting a podcast, I can help you do that. I provide consulting for podcasting
Speaker:and full service options from editing to posting to promoting whatever you need to do with
Speaker:your podcasts. I do it. And so if you're with your people this weekend for Thanksgiving
Speaker:and you start talking about podcasting, because you know, who doesn't start about talking about
Speaker:podcasting when they're hanging out with their family? What else do you have to do? Right?
Speaker:I mean, eat turkey, talk about podcasting. If you want to start a podcast, I can help
Speaker:you podcast answers.com slash contact is the place to do that. Because again, I want to
Speaker:get everybody started a podcast because podcasting is fun. So today, though, we are talking about
Speaker:navigating legal issues and just and copyright issues. So we're talking today, when you start
Speaker:a podcast, there are things that you need to think about because you could get into some
Speaker:major trouble if you don't take those things into consideration. And so first thing we're
Speaker:going to be talking a little bit today is about music. And that's going to be, you know,
Speaker:you may be tempted to put things like ACDC back in black on your podcast, but I would
Speaker:not recommend doing that because you will get in trouble for it. You may think no one's
Speaker:going to be listening to it. And you may think that you don't have to worry about anything,
Speaker:but that is not true. That is not the case. You will get in trouble for it. So there are
Speaker:some ways around it. There is lots of royalty free music that you can use. One of the ones
Speaker:and that's actually where I found the music for this podcast. That's the, you know, this
Speaker:track here is actually something from YouTube music, not YouTube music, but YouTube has
Speaker:a music selection that they allow you to use underneath your tracks and underneath your
Speaker:videos. And I've been able to, I've used it for this podcast too. I am broadcasting this
Speaker:podcast on YouTube currently as I, as I do it live because I like having a live podcast.
Speaker:It's a lot of fun, but you can use YouTube to get some royalty free music that you can
Speaker:use other places that you can use it for. Also are pond five.com. I've, you can buy a track
Speaker:there. So well, one of the things that you have to watch out with the YouTube music is
Speaker:sometimes you have to do attribution on it, meaning you have to listen, you have to put
Speaker:in, you know, who the artist is in your, in your episode description. But the other thing
Speaker:to do is, you know, pond five.com is a great place. You can buy a track. I've been able
Speaker:to buy, buy a track for one of my other podcasts and you can just use it as you, as you play
Speaker:your podcast because once you buy it, it's legally yours to use as long as that's what
Speaker:you're, you know, as long as that you've been able to clear, clear that with pond five.
Speaker:There's lots of more different websites for that too, though. You can use epidemic sound
Speaker:and that's going to be a subscription. So pond five is used by the track. You go in,
Speaker:you'll listen to it. You say, Hey, I want to, I want to buy this track and you buy the
Speaker:track and you're able to use it with pond or with epidemic sound. That's a subscription
Speaker:and you get basically pay a monthly subscription. And as long as you're paying that, you can
Speaker:continue to put tracks from their library into your podcast and listen and have that
Speaker:as your sounds. And, you know, you can change that up if you want to do a different sound
Speaker:for tomorrow. You know, next episode, you can change that episode up. You change that
Speaker:artwork up from epidemic sound. And so again, that's a subscription, but it clears you.
Speaker:What you do with epidemic sound is you, you clear channels. So you say YouTube, I want
Speaker:to clear my YouTube channel so that that way they know when, when someone or YouTube's
Speaker:algorithms report it, that you're clear to use it because you have a subscription. So
Speaker:again, music is one of the big things that we have to think about royalty free. I would
Speaker:stay away. You know, I've heard things where people say I can use it fair use. I'm going
Speaker:to play 10 seconds of, you know, ACDC black and black. And I just would not do that because
Speaker:you're going to get, you are going to get copyrighted every time and you don't want
Speaker:to do that. You don't want them to take that down. And so you're definitely going to want
Speaker:to, to not use anything under the guise of fair use just because that's something that
Speaker:I would stay away from. Now the next thing that I would, I would warn you about is having
Speaker:your guests sign a release form. So yes, you may have your guests come on and your guests
Speaker:may say, yes, I want to be on your podcast, but then next, you know, a week from now,
Speaker:they may come back and say, no, I didn't really like that or I don't give you permission for
Speaker:it. And they can take you to court on that. And so I would have them sign a release form
Speaker:and that way they can, they are held to, you can take, that's a legal contract you can
Speaker:take and say, no, you've signed this release form that I own this media. You did, we're
Speaker:a guest on my show in no, there was no exchange of anything for it, value for it, but you
Speaker:were a guest on my show. And so that allows you to say, no, you've released that episode
Speaker:and what you've set out. Now some people take that a step further and say, you know, I'm,
Speaker:I will edit it and you can listen to the podcast before I release it. But for me, what I do
Speaker:is I have people sign my release form, which basically says anything that you've said on
Speaker:the show can and will be on the show. Now I usually tell them afterwards, if you decide,
Speaker:you know, right after the show that you shouldn't have said that, that it's okay to go ahead
Speaker:and contact me. I will edit it out as long as it's before the release of the episode.
Speaker:So have them sign a release form. And then what I would do is also on your own edit out
Speaker:anything that you think might cause legal issues. So let's say your guest said something
Speaker:that later when you're editing set, you say, I don't know legally if I should put that
Speaker:in my show because it's just some, there's just a little bit of controversy on it or
Speaker:it may come back to bite me. So like you as the editor have the right to edit those things
Speaker:out and you, you should, if you think it's may cause legal issues because you as a publisher
Speaker:can be held responsible for it. Now, if you are contacted later about an episode, consider
Speaker:it taking it down. I had one in one of my podcasts where a previous guest came in and
Speaker:said, you know, I would really appreciate if you would take this episode down because
Speaker:of XYZ. And so I considered it. I said, you know, I'm your friend. We were friends and
Speaker:I care about you because if I didn't take it down, yes, I didn't legally have to take
Speaker:it down, but I took it down because I care about the person and I didn't want them to
Speaker:get hurt over what was said in the podcast. Yes, they were responsible for what they said,
Speaker:but ultimately I cared more about my friendship. And so I took that episode down. So again,
Speaker:consider that it's not that big of a deal. If later you need to come back and take an
Speaker:episode down. Now be careful for what you say to in your podcast because you could be held
Speaker:liable for things that you say and liable is basically where you say a way that you
Speaker:publish a false statement and it's damaging to a person's reputation. So let's say you
Speaker:said something about a famous person and it was a false statement and damages their reputation.
Speaker:They can come back and sue you for liable. And so just make sure that what you're talking
Speaker:about, you can't be held liable in any way. Make sure that you have 100% true statements
Speaker:and don't say anything that could be damaging to a person's reputation, even if you think
Speaker:it may be true because you can be held responsible for that. Now the last thing that I would
Speaker:say you need to be careful with as far as legal issues go. And again, all of these things
Speaker:are coming from me. I am not a lawyer. And so I don't know what you can and can't 100%
Speaker:be sued on because I'm not a lawyer. And I will give you a recommendation on a lawyer
Speaker:that's good with podcasting in case you want to one or need one. But the last thing that
Speaker:I would say to consider is in naming your podcast. Don't use products or company names
Speaker:in the title of your podcast unless you are that company. So don't call yourself the Coca
Speaker:Cola fan club. Even if you say the Coca Cola fan club or the unofficial Coca Cola fan club
Speaker:or whatever, I would be cautious of how you use things in your name because those companies
Speaker:can come back and sue you if you are not the owner of that trademark, that copyright, that
Speaker:name. So I would just be super careful with that. And then also search for other podcast
Speaker:names that are like yours. Now, this is not 100% legal. You can still use the name, but
Speaker:be careful because make sure it's not copyrighted. So if somebody has a copyright on the name,
Speaker:don't use it. Like I wouldn't try to use something like maybe podcast answers or dudes and dads
Speaker:podcast, which is my other podcast, because it's kind of a specific name. But you can
Speaker:use things like let's talk or let's talk about it or real talk. Those are, but the one thing
Speaker:you have to know about those is lots of podcasts have let's talk or real talk or let's get real
Speaker:or let's talk or things like that. So your podcast isn't going to stand out because it's
Speaker:going to be hard to find because if I search for let's talk about it, 150 other shows are
Speaker:going to come up and those may or may not be yours. So you do need to be careful about
Speaker:naming your podcast because you don't want to put a product name in there, but you also
Speaker:want to not use a name that's so generic that people aren't going to find your podcast.
Speaker:So those are the things that I would say that you need to consider about when you're thinking
Speaker:about the legal issues of your podcast. And again, this is not a hundred percent exhaustive
Speaker:list, but these are just some things that I thought of about legally and copyrighting,
Speaker:you know, copyright issues that could come into play in your podcast. So with that though,
Speaker:I did say that I was going to recommend a podcast lawyer and that person is Gordon Firemark
Speaker:and Gordon is a lawyer, but he's also specializes in podcasting topics. He's a podcaster himself.
Speaker:And so he's very, very familiar with issues that can come up to podcasters. In fact, he's
Speaker:the one that kind of gave me the template that I use for the podcasting and released form
Speaker:for my guests. And this is a generic thing. He didn't give it specifically to me, but
Speaker:he had it on his site. And so I used it because I wanted to cover my basis on my guests to
Speaker:make sure that I wasn't going to be in violation and then have, I wanted to cover myself there.
Speaker:So I would check out Gordon Firemark. If you are, if you are going to be looking for a
Speaker:podcast lawyer. So guys, I was thinking about doing something for this podcast. Would you
Speaker:like to see this podcast in video form in your podcast app? Now I do post this live.
Speaker:We do a live YouTube video. And I also post the video to it to YouTube after the fact.
Speaker:But I do stream audio live in new podcasting apps because some new podcasting apps can
Speaker:show a live audio and live video feed of the podcast episode. You get alerted in it when
Speaker:your favorite show goes live. And for me, I go live a little bit early before any other
Speaker:app, any other place like slow YouTube. I don't start the podcast on YouTube for a little
Speaker:while, but I do normally start the audio stream early. And the reason I do that is kind of
Speaker:a little bit more of a behind the scenes look into that. And so I do start that early. And
Speaker:so I can do that live video also in podcasting apps. So if that's something that you would
Speaker:like to see, I'm looking for some people to partner with me. It'll be about $10 a month
Speaker:or so. And I can with doing that, I can provide live video while recording in some of the
Speaker:podcast apps. If you want to help provide that, get in contact with me. Hello at podcastinganswers.com
Speaker:because I would love to do that. And then I can, I'm also thinking about starting a service
Speaker:for other podcasters to use that they can stream live video to. So again, if you want
Speaker:to help me out and stream this video live on new podcast apps, $10 a month will get you
Speaker:there. Hello at podcast dancers.com guys. Have a safe week. Happy Thanksgiving and just keep
Speaker:on podcasting.
Speaker:Bye.
Speaker:Bye.
Speaker:You