Does sharing my knowledge/hobby for free have any legal implications?

VictoriaWapping · 18 October 2014 at 1:49AM

I am not sure this is the right section - nor the right forum - and would appreciate if anyone could pinpoint me in the right direction. I am asking because I received some kind of a threat from a "competitor"

I have a hobby which I really enjoy and engage in a non-professional capacity (say, Photography - just for the sake of the example) and since I want to make new friends and expand the community of Photography, I am sharing my hobby by offering free photography courses during my pastime. I use social media and the internet to set up these events and actually meet either in town, park, in the pub or elsewhere.

Note that professionals in this hobby of mine charge extremely high prices for this kind of courses and somehow my group grew very rapidly and I have thousands of followers. I don't think I ruined their market share, but I have dozens of people at my courses sometimes.

I also received occasional online comments like "Does this course use this specific [highly advanced technology only professionals can use]?" from professionals, implicitly trying to enlighten the public that my courses are not professional (and I openly admit it and don't mind - I always specify that I am just doing it as a pastime/hobby).

However, a competitor recently wrote me an e-mail threatening that if I don't always specify what exactly I offer for free and that it does not include the same "service level" of professionals, I could face legal consequences, as I might be misleading my online followers/Likers.

Any idea if this is true, and where could I find some good answers?

As I do this for free, I would find it sad to pay for legal advice just to be able to do something for free... but just wanted to hear your opinions.

antrobus · 18 October 2014 at 10:41AM

VictoriaWapping wrote: »

I am not sure this is the right section - nor the right forum - .....

Probably not.

VictoriaWapping wrote: »

...However, a competitor recently wrote me an e-mail threatening ....

It's a criminal offence under s1 Malicious Communications Act 1988 to send an "electronic communication" that contains a "threat". You could report them to the police, or get a solicitor to write them a very "nice" letter pointing this out.

VictoriaWapping wrote: »

....that if I don't always specify what exactly I offer for free and that it does not include the same "service level" of professionals, I could face legal consequences, as I might be misleading my online followers/Likers.....

So what if you were 'misleading' them? You are not charging for these courses, so no one would suffer any loss; it's difficult to think of any way in which someone could suffer some kind of injury or loss as a result of 'bad advice' given on a photography course.

I suppose you might consider adopting some kind of all-purpose disclaimer along the lines of 'This is a free course intended to assist amateur photographers in getting more enjoyment from their hobby, and should not be regarded as an alternative to a professional photography qualification'.

VictoriaWapping wrote: »

...Any idea if this is true, and where could I find some good answers?...

This is just the opinion of some random guy off the internet, you understand, but I think it it's a pile of %^$£.

I mean, the nation is full of photography clubs which offer free courses in return for a small membership fee. Have any of them suffered any 'legal consequences' recently?

Happytravelling · 18 October 2014 at 2:21PM

You could do with someone who has a law degree stumbling on this thread... I did a contract law module as part of a business course a little while ago, and remember that for a contract to be formed, there has to be 'Consideration' (if you search for contract on wikipedia, it explains this concept), which is normally a payment. If you're not asking for anything in return for your knowledge then I don't see how any followers could expect to receive a certain standard.

For example, if I proclaimed to be an expert in gardening and offered free lectures, only to tell people a load of codswallop about flowers growing well in the dark or slugs being excellent for your lettuce, they'd have no legal comeback because they've listened of their own free will and I would have asked nothing from them.

Misrepresentation is a term relating to contract law, when you induce someone into entering a contract by portraying something falsely (again, check out good old wikipedia) but if there's no contract, its not relevant.

If you don't already, it may be worth a statement on your website to say this is your hobby that you love to share; that way, there's no insinuation of offering the professional level stuff.

And if I'd got people posting to say do you do this specifically technical professional thing to try and undermine you, I'd write back to say something like "Sorry, nothing as glamorous as that. You'll have to shell out big bucks with a professional company if that's the level of skill you need"

I should add (so not as to misrepresent!) that there's a whole world of law I'm clueless about that might be relevant.

Does sharing my knowledge/hobby for free have any legal implications?

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