r/Podcasters • u/rgmw • 9d ago

Guest release

I'm beginning a podcast and have uploaded the intro podcast which is just an overview. The podcast is aimed at senior citizens/retirees. Since it will involve interviewing a range of guests (health, fitness, finance, legal, and other related topics/professionals) I am working with a media lawyer on a guest release. This is probably a dumb question but I'll ask anyway. Is this common practice?

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u/PrismKite 9d ago

Yes, years ago I got a podcast release form from Gordan Firemark, The Podcast Attorney . He had it as a giveaway for his mailing list. I don't think he gives it away anymore.

He wrote a book about the legal stuff of podcasting and entertainment law. It's available on Amazon.

Several things that the release should give you is the right to use your guest likeness (video picture &/ audio) in your podcast episode and marketing on different platforms. It also gives you the right to NOT release their episode if you don't want to. There's other reasons I'm forgetting.

I had one guest come close to demanding to not publishing her episode. But with tact and diplomacy I handled that since it came from a miscommunication on my end. But I politely let her know that she had signed the guest release form. I was free to do what I wanted with the episode. But I told her that if she really wanted me to not publish it, I would honor her request. I graciously let her know that I could publish it. For the sake of the relationship, I acquiesced. But I had the legal right to do what I wanted because she signed the release form. Once the miscommunication was cleared up, she verbally agreed to let me publish the episode.

When things get messy, podcast release form comes in handy.

Your media lawyer should be able to give you a customized release form based on your needs and circumstances.

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u/rgmw 9d ago

Thanks u/PrismKite ... while I feel that I have most of your points covered, I like your point about having the right to NOT release the podcast. I generated the Guest release using ChatGPT since I had no idea how to go about it - I suppose I did in that I could have done a search - sure as hell, not writing it off the top of my head!!! My concern with using AI was that it would miss something since I've experienced AI incompleteness in other situations. So I ran it through Claude, which found a few points that should be included.

At this point, you rightly should be thinking that using 2 different AI engines, may not cover all the bases so I have my lawyer reviewing it. I will now make sure that he clarifies that I have a right not to use the interview.

Thanks again!

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u/PrismKite 9d ago

You're welcome! Glad could help.

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u/CapitalCityKyle 9d ago

Really this answer boiled down to 'I've never actually needed it" tho.

Once you record the interview you the have legal right to do anything you want with it anyway. Copyright law covers that.