Exclusive rights to written content.

lcharm

I'm thinkning of posting a job on Gumtree to have a few people write articles for some of my business blogs but before I did I want to know how do I ensure exclusive rights to the copyright so they don't post on their own blog for example?

Could a digital form with a tick box be enough or do you reckon an actual signature is compulsary?

Thanks

paddyrg

I would go with an actual signature - it is easy enough to skip past a tickbox without reading the terms, or claim that the terms changed, or for the important parts of the release/assignation to be below the scroll half of the page etc - but a proper signed deal sheet assigning all rights (with or without the right to a credit, etc), signed, scanned, emailed and a physical copy posted will focus the mind a bit more, and strengthen your hand if you do ever have to follow up in court.

That said, the odds of it being worthwhile chasing it in court are negligible, so how about buying an exclusive license to the first publication of the material, and they get to blog it (but not resell it) after 6 months?

mrhappy7

Yeah I agree do not let them start work until you got a signed copy of some sort of agreement.
Also I would not use gumtree for this work, I think sites like peopleperhour, freelancer, etc are better for this type of work.
You can use an escrow system do not pay them until you are happy with the work and you got everything you need.

lcharm

Thanks Guys,

Paddyrg- I thought of that and I'd be happy to give them rights to publish after 6 months, no issues there.

mrhappy7 - I've tried PPH and elance and the bids are complete rip offs while cheaper ones are from the Asia-Pacific regions where grammer etc... may be an issue and also the fact that they are less likely to abide by a contract for exclusivity. Might be worth checking again though. Only reason I thought of Gum tree is purely because there'l be a lot of UK based stay at home mums and/or students looking for work and this can help in the meantime as it'll be better money than review sites like Ciao

InsideInsurance

Ultimately you have to prove that they were presented with the T&Cs and agreed to them, you dont have to prove that they read them. The more strongly you can prove it the better the chances of winning any court case.

Realistically, if you are disliking the costs of semi-pro copywriters how likely are you firstly going to want to be spending money to enforce your contract, secondly how realistically will you be able to prove the losses you've sustained due to the breach of contract and finally how likely are students etc going to be able to afford to pay back damages?

Take that into consideration when deciding how much time/ effort to invest in ensuring you can prove their agreement.

I dont know the topic you want copy creating for but is a "house wife" realistically going to have a blog on a similar topic to duplicate it's use?