Podcasters Defamation Risk for Podcasters: What You Can Say, What Gets You Sued, and What Insurance Covers The Dominion, Smartmatic, and Alex Jones verdicts are the extreme end — but the same rules apply to any podcaster who states a false fact about a person or company. Opinion vs. fact, public vs. private figures, the republication trap, why Section 230 won't save you, and what media insurance covers.
Podcasters Guest Release Agreements for Podcasters: What You Need Before You Hit Record A verbal "sure, use it" won't hold up once an episode is live and monetized. Here's what a podcast guest release actually grants — consent, distribution license, editing rights, and use of voice and likeness — why verbal consent fails, and when a short-form release is enough versus a long-form one.
Streamers DMCA Takedowns on Twitch and YouTube: What Streamers Need to Know Playing copyrighted music on stream isn't fair use — and streamers are learning this the hard way. Here's how DMCA takedowns work on Twitch vs YouTube, the difference between sync and performance licenses, what strikes mean for your channel, and DMCA-safe music alternatives.
Visual Artists When AI Trains on Your Art: Copyright, Style Imitation, and Legal Options for Visual Artists Visual artists whose work feeds AI image models like Stable Diffusion and Midjourney have legal rights. Here is what copyright law, active litigation, the Copyright Office, and technical tools like Glaze and Nightshade mean for your art today.
Writers AI-Assisted Writing and Copyright: What Authors Need to Know Before Submitting or Publishing AI writing tools are everywhere, but the copyright questions they raise aren't settled. Here's what the Copyright Office's 2025 AI guidance means for authors who use ChatGPT, Claude, or Sudowrite — and what to disclose before submitting or signing.
Founders Amazon Seller Agreement Red Flags: What You're Actually Agreeing To Amazon's Business Solutions Agreement has real teeth: 90-day payment holds, perpetual IP licenses, de facto price parity enforcement, and immediate suspension with no appeal outside Amazon. Here's what's buried in the terms you already agreed to.
Founders FTC Endorsement Rules for Product Sellers: Reviews, Affiliates, and Influencer Campaigns Most DTC brands know they need disclosures. Fewer know that review gating is a federal violation, that #ad in a bio isn't enough, and that the FTC has levied multi-million-dollar penalties against fashion and beauty brands for exactly these mistakes.
Founders Product Liability for DTC Brands: When You're the Importer, You're the Manufacturer Most DTC founders assume their factory contract and supplier insurance protect them. They don't. US law treats importers as the manufacturer when the foreign supplier is unreachable — strict liability, CPSC reporting duties, and recall costs all land on the brand.
Writers Literary Agent Agreements: What Authors Are Actually Signing — Commission, Term, and the Clauses That Outlive the Deal Getting 'the call' from a literary agent is thrilling — but representation is a contract. A plain-English guide to commission (15% of gross), scope, the agency clause, the 'coupled with an interest' trap, and how to leave.
Filmmakers Talent, Location, and Music Releases: The Clearance Package Every Indie Film Needs Before Delivery No distributor will take your film without E&O insurance, and no insurer approves it without a complete clearance package. A practical guide to talent, location, and music releases, life rights, and the chain of title that makes an indie film deliverable.
Musicians AI Voice Clones and the NO FAKES Act: Protecting Your Voice and Likeness as a Creator An AI track faked Drake and The Weeknd and racked up millions of plays before it was pulled. If your voice or likeness can be cloned, here's the legal toolkit that protects creators today—and what the NO FAKES Act would change.
Musicians Band Partnership Agreements & Split Sheets: The Legal Foundation Every Working Band Skips Two or more musicians sharing in a band form a general partnership by default — equal splits, joint liability, and dissolution on exit baked in. A plain-English guide to split sheets, songwriting vs. master splits, who owns the band name, leaver provisions, and when to form an LLC.
Writers Newsletter Legal Checklist: CAN-SPAM, Privacy Policy, and Platform Risk for Substack and Ghost Creators Running a paid newsletter also means running an email marketing operation. Federal law, state privacy statutes, and FTC disclosure rules apply to your subscriber list whether you have 200 readers or 200,000.
Writers Book Publishing Contracts: What Authors Are Signing Away — and How to Protect What Matters You got the offer. Now comes the part no one prepares you for — understanding what the contract actually says. Here's what traditional publishing agreements cover, what you're giving up, and what you can negotiate before you sign.
Filmmakers Indie Filmmaker Legal Essentials: Entity Formation, Chain of Title, and Music Licensing Most indie films hit legal roadblocks before they see a distributor. Here's how to structure your production, protect your IP, and clear the rights that matter.
Writers The Legal Guide for Newsletter Creators: Copyright, FTC Disclosures, and Privacy Compliance Running a paid newsletter is running a business. Here's what every newsletter creator needs to know about copyright, FTC disclosures, privacy compliance, and platform terms.
Visual Artists Work-for-Hire vs. Licensing in Commercial Art: What Every Artist Should Know Before Signing Independent artists signing commercial contracts face a choice that can permanently affect their copyright: work-for-hire or licensing. Learn the legal difference, how to price each correctly, and which contract red flags to strike before you sign.
Writers Traditional vs. Self-Publishing Contracts: What Every Author Should Know Before Signing Before you sign a publishing contract — traditional or self-published — you need to know what you're actually transferring. This guide breaks down royalties, reversion clauses, copyright fundamentals, and what's actually negotiable in a traditional deal.
Filmmakers Chain of Title for Indie Films: The Document Package Every Distributor Requires Finishing your film and having a film a distributor will accept are two different things. Chain of title problems are among the most common reasons indie films stall at distribution — and they are almost always preventable if documentation is built during production, not after.
Filmmakers Option and Purchase Agreements for Indie Filmmakers: How to Lock Down Your Source Material Before you can make a film based on a book, true story, or someone's life, you need to lock down the rights. Here's how option and purchase agreements actually work — and what to watch for before signing.
Musicians Label Deal Red Flags: What to Negotiate Before You Sign Taylor Swift's masters, Madonna's 90% touring share, California's broken 7-year rule for musicians: what every artist should fight for before signing a recording contract.
Streamers COPPA on YouTube and Twitch: What Streamers Actually Need to Know After Disney's $10M FTC settlement, COPPA enforcement is hitting creators directly. What streamers need to know about Made for Kids, Twitch's age rule, the 2025 Final Rule, and the contract terms to push for in brand deals.
Streamers FTC Endorsement Rules for Streamers: What to Disclose and How An FTC compliance guide for streamers on Twitch, YouTube, TikTok, and Kick: what counts as an endorsement, the "clear and conspicuous" disclosure standard, format-specific rules for live/VOD/Shorts, streamer-specific pitfalls, and what FTC enforcement actually looks like under the 2024 Final Rule.
Visual Artists Gallery Representation Deals: What Artists Need to Know About Exclusivity, Splits, and Termination Gallery contracts cover more than just commission. Here is what visual artists need to know about exclusivity scope, payment timing, and protecting your work if the relationship ends.
Visual Artists The Visual Artist's AI Opt-Out Guide: What Actually Works in 2026 Three layers of defense — dataset, technical, legal — and which actually work for visual artists in 2026. Concrete steps for Spawning HIBT registration, Glaze cloaking, current AI-crawler robots.txt entries, EU TDMRep, and where DMCA still bites against AI outputs that copy your work.
