Staying Savvy Series: How to Say Yes, Safely

This is Number Two in a series of posts, which will present some simple tools for protecting yourself from the possibility of your ideas and work being exploited by a less-than-ethical corporation. Please be sure to check out Post Number One for a fuller introduction.

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Chapter Two: How to say Yes, Safely.

Okay, so you’ve been invited to submit your work to a book project, or a website, or a video podcast. And after carefully checking out the company that’s producing this project, you’ve decided to go for it.

Congratulations! Now you just need to take a few simple steps to make sure you and this company have a clear understanding of what you’re giving them, what they can use it for, and how long they may use it.

First, is there any written agreement? Depending on the company that’s making the offer, you may or may not be asked to sign some kind of agreement before participating in their project. Given that I’m no expert in contract law, I can’t advise you fully here. Obviously, you’ll want to read that document carefully. If the project is high-stakes enough, you may even want to have a lawyer look it over. If you can’t afford a lawyer, you might have a friend (or friend of friend) who practices law, and wouldn’t mind answering your questions. Or, you may find help over at Nolo Press. Good luck!

If there’s nothing in writing, put some stuff in writing. More often, you may find yourself agreeing to fairly informal things, like agreeing to write an article or tutorial for someone’s website, or letting a company publish a piece of your work in a book. Or maybe you’re agreeing to be a guest-blogger on a corporate site. There might not be any contract involved, but it’s still a good idea to make the boundaries of your participation clear.

One easy way is this: in the email in which you formally agree to participate, you can spell out these basics:

- What exactly you will contribute. (Such as: “I’ll be glad to provide you with three blog posts per week, covering craft-based news from the Seattle area.”)

- How long your participation will last. (“I can write blog posts for your company for six months, ending in February 2008. At that time, we can re-evaulate my participation and decide whether to continue.”)

- What exactly the company may do with your work. (“Any photographs or writing I provide your company may be used on this blog only. Please do not use my work in any other contexts without my express approval.”)

It should be said that this email won’t take the place of a legally-binding contract. But for more informal agreements (which happen every day around the web), it really pays to spell this stuff out in advance, in writing, in case there’s a question later.

But won’t that make me look all distrustful and stingy?
Well, perhaps — but if a company wants to interpret your attempts to protect your own work that way, then it’s possible they aren’t the right company to align with.

You’d hate to let a company use a few of your photographs for a blog post, only to find out later that they’ve also used them to illustrate a new magazine without ever telling you, crediting you, or paying you.

If you’ve been clear with a company in writing at the start of your collaboration, then at least you have a leg to stand on if you have to ask them to stop using your work inappropriately later on. Maybe you’ll end up having to take legal action, but then again, maybe your careful words beforehand will save you that trouble.

A quick note on Creative Commons: I’m also no expert in copyright law, but I am a big fan of protecting your work via Creative Commons licensing. Creative Commons licenses are free, and come in several different structures, which allow you to retain the rights to your work, while sharing it with others as much or as little as you want.

If you’re using Creative Commons licensing, then you can place a license button on your website, or simply state to the interested company: “My work is licensed under Creative Commons [insert type of license here].” Visit the Creative Commons website to learn more.

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In the next segment, I’ll talk about how to respond if you do find a company using your work inappropriately.