Welcome to the Legal section!
Legal aspects of Podcasting are explained in this section
We guide you through the most important things you should know about legal issues, concerning five topics:
1 - Protecting your podcast
2 - Watch your mouth!
3 – Using music
4 – Interviews
5 – Quotes
1 - Protecting your podcast
There are no special laws for podcasts yet, but you do have to follow the rules of the constitution of your country. Everything that YOU make, belongs to YOU. A unique podcast and unique webpage content is legally referred to as a work (just like a painting) and is protected by the same law that is the legislator of copyright in your country (national) and by the Convention of Berne (international).
This means that all copyright laws that apply to paintings, apply to podcasts and shownotes as well. This implies that nobody is allowed to copy, reproduce, or publicate your work. To make sure you are the one to be pointed at as the creater of the podcast, put your name down as the author in the ID3 tags. The use of a copyright notice or copyright statement is not necessary, but it makes it easier for the viewer to see that the rights are yours.
Creative Commons License
"A Creative Commons license is based on copyright. So they apply to all works that are protected by copyright law (books, websites, blogs, photographs, films, videos, songs and other audio & visual recordings, for example). Software programs are also protected by copyright but, as explained below, we do not recommend that you apply a Creative Commons license to software code.
Creative Commons licenses give you the ability to dictate how others may exercise your copyright rights—such as the right of others to copy your work, make derivative works or adaptations of your work, to distribute your work and/or make money from your work. They do not give you the ability to restrict anything that is otherwise permitted by exceptions or limitations to copyright—including, importantly, fair use or fair dealing—nor do they give you the ability to control anything is not protected by copyright law, such as facts and ideas.
One final thing you should understand about Creative Commons licenses is that they are all non-exclusive. This means that you can permit the general public to use your work under a Creative Commons license and then enter into a separate and different non-exclusive license with someone else, for example, in exchange for money." (source:creativecommons.org)
There are different licenses you can choose from. It depends of your preferences of what you want people can do with your work.
At creativecommons.org you can find all the information you are looking for.
2 - Watch your mouth!
There are no laws that settle the contents of podcasts yet. This means that you can say whatever you want, if it is allowed according to the constitution of your country of course!
In every country there are certain rules what broadcasters and journalists can and cannot say in their shows. Podcasting will probably get those (or similar) laws in the future too. So if you don't want to change all your podcasts afterwards, it is better to follow these rules. This way, you won't get into trouble later.
3 - Using music
In order to use music in your podcasts, you need to be aware of the fact that there are 5 types of music:
- Music of signed artists;
- Music of unsigned artists;
- Music with Creative Commons license;
- Music of which the copyright has expired;
- Podsafe music.
- 3.1 Music of signed artists
These artist are signed by record labels. Using this type of music in your podcasts means you have to pay royalties. So don't use it for free!
If you decide to use this type of music you have to pay for the rights to your local instance. These are some examples of instances in different countries. However, there are no rules yet concerning podcasting but these instances are working on it so keep in mind that you have to pay in the very near future!
- USA: ASCAP
- UK: MCPS/PRS
- France: SDRM
- Germany: GEMA
- Italy: SIAE
- Spain:SGAE
- The Netherlands: Buma/Stemra
- Belgium: Sabam
- Scandinavia: NCB
- 3.2 Music of unsigned artists
This kind of music contains everything you create yourself and all music from musicians who are not signed by any record label.
- 3.3 Music with Creative Commons License
A Creative Commons license is based on copyright. So they apply to all works that are protected by copyright law. Artists use Creative Commons to protect their work as they wish. It tells you what you can and cannot do with the music. Most of the time it says the music can only be used for non-commercial purposes.
- 3.4 Music with expired copyright
The copyright on music is temporary: It expires after a curtain term. The overall rule is: There is copyright on music tracks until seventy years after the maker's death.
- 3.5 Podsafe music
Podsafe refers to a track that is legally permissible to use in a podcast. This is possible, because the band or artist is either not signed to a label or recorded their tracks under the Creative Commons licence. Independent artists often make their compositions available as podsafe music in order to get free publicity and airplay.
Artists can submit their own podsafe music on certain websites. Podcasters can sign up on those websites and use the music for their shows.
You don’t have to pay royalties or whatsoever. There'e only two things to do: Register the music you are using on the podsafe music website (so the artists know how much airplay they are getting) and mention the name of the artist and the site you got it from in your show.
4 - Interviews
If you are recording interviews, always get your interviewee to sign a quit claim. If you are interviewing through a phone, make sure you record his/her permission. If you don't get permission, your guest can always get back at his/her contribution to the show and say you can't use the material. That would be a big loss of time, effort and money!
5 - Quotes
You can use quotes in announcements, reviews, polemics, or scientific essays if the work you quote from is lawful publicated. The size and the number of quotes have to justify the aimed goal, and you have to name the source you got the quote from!