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[fusion_dropcap boxed=”yes” boxed_radius=”” class=”” id=”” color=”” text_color=””]A[/fusion_dropcap]s a content creator, does the whole subject of copyright leave you super frustrated or entirely glazed over? Or maybe you’re worrying that a copyright owner is going to drop a big fat cease and desist letter or lawsuit on you for violating her rights.
And perhaps you’re blissfully sailing along right-clicking and downloading images and videos left and right to add to your blog posts and social media thinking. “Hey, it’s on the Internet, so it’s gotta be ok to use.” [Spoiler: in all likelihood, it’s not.]
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background_position=”center center” background_repeat=”no-repeat” fade=”no” background_parallax=”none” enable_mobile=”no” parallax_speed=”0.3″ background_blend_mode=”none” video_aspect_ratio=”16:9″ video_loop=”yes” video_mute=”yes” filter_hue=”0″ filter_saturation=”100″ filter_brightness=”100″ filter_contrast=”100″ filter_invert=”0″ filter_sepia=”0″ filter_opacity=”100″ filter_blur=”0″ filter_hue_hover=”0″ filter_saturation_hover=”100″ filter_brightness_hover=”100″ filter_contrast_hover=”100″ filter_invert_hover=”0″ filter_sepia_hover=”0″ filter_opacity_hover=”100″ filter_blur_hover=”0″ type=”legacy”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_6″ layout=”1_6″ center_content=”no” target=”_self” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” hover_type=”none” border_style=”solid” border_position=”all” box_shadow=”no” box_shadow_blur=”0″ box_shadow_spread=”0″ background_type=”single” gradient_start_position=”0″ gradient_end_position=”100″ 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box_shadow=”no” box_shadow_blur=”0″ box_shadow_spread=”0″ background_type=”single” gradient_start_position=”0″ gradient_end_position=”100″ gradient_type=”linear” radial_direction=”center center” linear_angle=”180″ background_position=”left top” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_blend_mode=”none” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ filter_type=”regular” filter_hue=”0″ filter_saturation=”100″ filter_brightness=”100″ filter_contrast=”100″ filter_invert=”0″ filter_sepia=”0″ filter_opacity=”100″ filter_blur=”0″ filter_hue_hover=”0″ filter_saturation_hover=”100″ filter_brightness_hover=”100″ filter_contrast_hover=”100″ filter_invert_hover=”0″ filter_sepia_hover=”0″ filter_opacity_hover=”100″ filter_blur_hover=”0″ last=”false” first=”false” border_sizes_top=”0″ border_sizes_bottom=”0″ border_sizes_left=”0″ border_sizes_right=”0″ min_height=”” link=””][fusion_text columns=”” column_min_width=”” column_spacing=”” rule_style=”” rule_size=”” rule_color=”” hue=”” saturation=”” 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Danielle Liss, Esq. is here to untangle the legalese and run through some scenarios to illuminate what you can and can’t use, and how to go about obtaining permission to use content that another creator put their their time and effort into making.
You can watch the video interview above with or without subtitles, or read the transcript below.
Key takeaways:
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Content creators face a bewildering array of copyright compliance requirements, but there are some easy ways to avoid legal trouble and fees
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I have a colleague who received a cease and desist letter from a stock photo house for illicitly using just a portion one of their images deep in a PDF. They found the image using their powerful search technology, so hoping you won’t be caught isn’t a good strategy.
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“I went to Google image search and I right clicked. And that’s fine, I can use that image. It’s in the public domain.” I’m like, “Oh, mm-mm (negative), that’s not what that word means.”
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Marketers who believe that there’s a positive ROI from video went from just 33% in 2015 to 87%
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Live streaming doesn’t require editing
CHUCK:
Hey, there. I’m Chuck Moran with Online Video Mastery. And I am here today to clear up confusion around copyright for content creators. I’ve found over the years that there is a lot of confusion about fair use and permissions and how to get it and all that stuff. And I don’t know how to do this myself, so I’m very happy to be joined today by Danielle Liss. Danielle is an online business attorney. She has almost 10 years of experience doing this, which in internet years is quite a good bit of time.
So, I’m very happy to have Danielle along with me today to straighten all of this stuff out for us. Let me tell you a little bit about my guest, Danielle is a passionate, legal representative for small business owners. She is the owner of Businessese, and I have to say she’s my intellectual property attorney, and I’m very happy with the results I’ve gotten.
She sells DIY legal templates, so I’m going to put a link in the show notes so that you can get access to those templates. She also has a law firm called Liss Legal, where she focuses on her practice on online business owners, bloggers, and influencers, as well as wellness professionals.
Danielle has previously served as Chief Marketing Officer and General Counsel of an influencer network, as well as General Counsel and Vice-President of affiliate programs for an eight-figure digital health and wellness company.
So, Danielle, welcome to the show.
DANIELLE:
Thank you so much for having me, I’m excited to be here.
CHUCK:
Yeah, well, I’m really glad. I think this is a huge area of confusion. I really do. I have a client and a good friend who ran into this copyright bulldozer in the worst possible way. She had a nonprofit, […] and she got a cease and desist letter from Getty Images. And Getty wrote to her saying that she had illegally used an image from their library in one of her pieces of content. Well, when she asked what it was, they’ve proved to her that there was a piece of their content in a PDF.
It was not on the web, well, the PDF was on the web, but it was not on a website, it was not on her social or anything really obvious. It was on page 32 of a PDF and it was an image that an intern had created where she had morphed several images together and used a Getty Image of a cow in the background in a layered format.
But there was enough of the original cow showing that caught Getty’s secret search engine, where they were able to determine that she was illegally using it. Anyway, they brought the hammer down on my colleague and tried to charge her a big bunch of money. Luckily, she was able to negotiate it down, but she still had to pay for it. And the fact that, first of all, it was created without her knowledge, by an intern who didn’t know better, made her think that there’s a huge risk for us as content creators out there.
So, Danielle, tell me a little bit about Getty and some of the stories that you may have heard about, what they’re up to.
DANIELLE:
There are many. And I think that any of the large image agencies, they do have really great search tools where they can look and they are very well known for sending out cease and desist letters. And often, if you have an attorney reply, suddenly the number, if it starts out five figures, it suddenly comes down very low. And at that stage, it’s like, “Do I want to pay the attorney this much to fight it, or do I want to just pay it and be done?”
[bctt tweet=”I went to Google image search and I right-clicked. And that’s fine, I can use that image. It’s in the public domain. I’m like, “Oh, mm-mm (negative), that’s not what that word means.”” username=”baldguystudio”]
So, and we often refer to that as a “cost of defense settlement” because you’re just doing it because it’s going to cost you the same amount either way. And I want to say this, I feel like this was more of an issue a few years ago. And we’ve talked about this offline, where for a long time people said, “I went to Google image search and I right-clicked. And that’s fine, I can use that image. It’s in the public domain.” I’m like, “Oh, mm-mm (negative), that’s not what that word means.”
So, I think that there is just a level of confusion that goes along with it and with even stock images, because no matter what, there’s still a copyright around something. And the key is, who has the copyright, what are they saying you can do with it, and what license do you have on that piece of content to be able to use it?
And if you haven’t gotten a license, you probably need to say, “Okay, if I don’t have a license on it, does this fall into the concept of fair use?” Which honestly, it’s a very nuanced area of law and it can get a little bit confusing because different courts say different things about it. So, it’s important to know where’s your content coming from. And also, like you said, if it was an intern that did it, you need to make sure that you’ve got your standard operating procedures within your company so that everyone is clear on what those policies are, where you should be getting images, how they should be treated, and where they’re coming from.
And even if you’re outsourcing to an agency, it’s really important to say to them, “Where are my images coming from?” If they’re creating content for you, what is the license on those images? Because at the end of the day, if they’re being posted under your name, it’s likely going to be you who is in the line of receiving that initial cease and desist letter, even if it was from someone else. And it’s then up to you to wrangle with them as to who has the ultimate responsibility for it.
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CHUCK:
Yeah. Well, I think the confusion is exaggerated by the number of terms that are out there, so, fair use, royalty-free. Royalty-free sounds good. It’s sort of like, “Great, I’m going to hop on here, right click. I’ve found this thing on Google, I can put it on my website because it says it’s a royalty-free image.” I want to make it clear that we’re talking about using other people’s content in all sorts of ways. So, if you’re a blogger, we’re talking about your blogs. If you’re a YouTuber, we’re talking about your YouTube videos. Whatever type of digital content you’re using, there is in all likelihood a copyright on something that you’re considering using. So, Danielle, I know you’ve got a basic black and white rule of thumb, so let’s dive into that for a second.
DANIELLE:
Sure. Let’s first talk about the definition of a copyright, because I think it’s really important to understand what that is. And so, a copyright is a form of intellectual property that protects original works of authorship in a fixed tangible medium. And I know, I just gave you a whole boatload of legalese in that. So, an original work of authorship means it’s something that’s been created by someone, so, that author is the creator of that original work. The idea that it is fixed in a tangible medium means the form of expression of that creative piece of content. Usually, that’s going to be things like an image, a book, a screenplay, a video, a piece of copy. It is how it is expressed.
Now, it’s also important to know what isn’t considered copyrightable content. And that’s going to be things like ideas, titles, lists of ingredients, or lists of steps, processes, systems, things along those lines are not considered copyrightable because they say there’s a lack of creativity that goes into them.
I find this fascinating because as a person who, let’s just say, I’m kitchen-challenged, I do not have the creative ability to go in and say, “Let me create this amazing set of steps for these foods and it would be something good.” It would be something awful and it would be burned. But all that said, they have said that a recipe is not something that is copyrightable because it’s a list of steps.
However, if you express it with some creativity around it, meaning, you’ve got creative copy or a creative story or things like that, then it is more likely to be copyrightable. So, that’s really what I want you to remember. We are talking about something that another person has put their creativity into and it’s original. They were the author, they put it out into whatever the medium was, they have the copyright on that piece of content.
Creative Commons licensing works within the copyright law and is a straightforward way to share copyrighted work. There are varying rights that come along with being a copyright holder. Think of copyright as your umbrella and then underneath it, there are a number of different rights that go there. The various types of Creative Commons licenses include:
Attribution: Which allows you to share and adapt the material as long as you give credit, provide original link, and state that changes have been made to the material. Read the license.
Attribution-ShareAlike: Which is the same as the Attribution, but if you adapt any of the material you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.) Read the license.
Attribution-NoDerivatives: Which allows you to share material as long as you give credit, provide a link to original material, and state that changes have been made to the material. NoDerivatives means that adapt any of the material, you may not redistribute the modified material. Read the license.
Attribution-NonCommercial: Which allows you to share or adapt the material, as long as you give credit, provide a link to original material, and indicate in changes were made. You may not use the material for commercial purposes. Read the license.
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: Which is the same as the above Attribution-NonCommercial, but adding that if you decide to adapt any of the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original. Read the license.
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives: Which allows you to share the material, as long as give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may not use the material for commercial purposes, and if you adapt the material you may not redistribute the modified material. Read the license.
So, it’s the ability to create derivative works, the ability to perform, the ability to display, to sell, to reproduce content. What we’re talking about most of the time for online content creators is that you want to display someone else’s content. Sometimes you may want to have a performance element, but for the most part, you are looking to reproduce it and display it in some way. So, you need to make sure that when you are looking at someone else’s copyright, whether or not you have the right to use that content in the way that you want.
One of the things that you talked about was all the different ways that things are listed. It might be royalty-free, but royalty-free could mean that you still need to give attribution if you want to use it. And all attribution means is that you need to give credit. It’s that simple. But you need to know where to look for it.
I know a lot of folks are Canva users. So, for example, if you go into Canva, you can look and find what their license is for the stock imagery that they offer on their platform. And they are so specific, which I really appreciate. They’ll be like, “You can use it for this, you can’t use it for this.”, “You can use it for this, as long as it’s this size.”
So, really, it’s about navigating and understanding what your ability to use it is. Can you just go and right click on anything [and copy it]? I don’t recommend it. I generally say that everything has a copyright. You asked about that black and white rule. I assume that if it is a creative expression, somebody has a copyright on it, and then it’s about looking to see how you can use it. Check and see what that license is that they are claiming on that piece of content.
CHUCK:
Yeah. Got you. That’s really good. That black and white rule, I think really will help people. So, let’s walk through a scenario. Let’s say that someone watching this as a blogger and let’s say she’s has a cooking show and creates courses around her creations in the kitchen. That’s funny about you being cooking challenged, so, I guess that’s something we won’t see on your resume for a while. So, let’s say she’s starting out, and so, she’s starting to write blog posts and blog posts are typically made up of lots of words. Typically, they’re things that the content creator herself would write herself. She might want to stick in images of baked goods to show what the outcome might be of the muffins that she’s planning on making. So, she might be looking for muffin images.
She also might want to link to someone else’s content. So, if somebody else is showing how to fold ingredients together… I sound like I know what I’m talking about, but I really don’t. But folding sounds, it’s kind of fun, you just fold stuff in. Let’s say that she found a little three-minute video about how to learn how to fold. So, let’s just start with those. And then the third one is that she needs a big, nice image up at the top of her blog post of herself in her own kitchen, whipping things up. So, let’s take those in order, starting from the top of the blog post, if she gets her significant other to take a photograph of her working in her own kitchen, and then she downloads it to her computer and then uploads it to her WordPress site as the featured image. She’s good to go, right?
DANIELLE:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
CHUCK:
She created that.
DANIELLE:
I mean, that is her creation. Even if somebody else took the image, as long as they’re saying, yes, this image is now yours, or it was specifically taken for her, again, even if she’s not behind the camera.
Now, if it’s a professional photographer who is taking those images and it’s like a branding photo shoot, there might be slightly different roles. But generally speaking, if it’s somebody you know, you’re just saying, “Hey, can you push the button here,” and you’ve staged everything, that’s going to be your image that you can use. So, that’s the first piece. You are okay on anything that you have taken or as long as there are no rights from the photographer that they are claiming that it should be their content. And normally, when you work with a third-party photographer, they’re going to be really clear about what your license is and how you can use things.
And I always say read that really carefully, because if you’re going to need to edit those images, you may want to negotiate that a little bit and say, “Well, here’s what I need to do, is this covered in your license?” And if it’s not, it usually just means there’s a difference in pricing. So, just ask how you’re going to use it and just make sure that it’s covered and clear, that you’ve got the ability to edit if you need to, to remove backgrounds, if you need to. Now, where it gets tricky with what you talked about in that example is the idea of finding other people’s images to demonstrate the different steps. There may be some images that it’s okay to use, it depends on what the license is for that content.
So, like I said, just assume that there is an owner for that piece of content. So, you need to figure out, are you able to use it? If you find that it is what’s called a Creative Commons license, then it may be that you can use it, as long as you are giving credit or attribution, depending upon what level of Creative Commons license they have.
Now, if it’s on another blog, you may be able to go to their terms of use or their terms of service and find out if they say whether or not images can be used. While I can’t cook, I have worked with many, many food bloggers and they want to make it clear that if you were using one image from a post in a thumbnail size for a roundup of some sort, or for just some type of explanation, that you may use one image as long as there is a link back. And a lot of them started giving permissions like that because it’s great for them for traffic to be featured in like a Buzzfeed roundup or something along those lines.
So, check their site and see if there’s any type of permissions that they offer. If it’s a stock photo, see what you need to do to purchase that image and get the license to use it in the way that you are looking for, and then you can add it. So, the key there to using someone else’s image is make sure you know how you can use it and what the license is that the copyright holder has put out for it.
And if there’s nothing listed, reach out. If it’s a third party, like a small business owner, they may come back to you and say, “Absolutely not, you can’t use it.” And guess what? That’s a whole lot better than using it and then getting a cease and desist letter, then you just need to find another image.
But a lot of times they will come back and say, “Yeah, if that’s how you’re using it, please just give me a link and give me credit for it.” Because outside links, of course, that’s a good thing in the Google world for your SEO and your page ranking and things like that. That’s a happy thing is to have those outside links, as long as they know how you’re using it and they’ve given you approval. What was the last piece you mentioned, using a video?
CHUCK:
Yeah. Would be linking out to a video or maybe possibly using a screenshot from some portion of a video, but just as a thing that you can use to click on to go out to that video on YouTube. How would you handle that?
DANIELLE:
I think that the most important thing I am always going to err on the side of get permission. If you’re ever going to take a thumbnail or a screenshot or something like that, if you can get permission, I want you to get permission to make sure that you are clear. It could potentially be considered fair use if you are just using one small image from the video, but it gets tricky if it’s in commercial use versus educational, nonprofit type of use, as far as the definition of fair use goes.
So, it may be linking out to the video, I don’t think is a problem. I think, generally speaking, you’re always fine to link out to a video, give credit, you’re saying where it is. It’s not like you’re claiming, “This is me, those are my hands putting in ingredients.” You’re not going to be doing that, it’s going to be obvious when they get there.
So, the question is on taking a thumbnail and using that to link out, as I said, I would always say to get permission. You could always create just a textual image that’s got maybe video from whomever on how to fold in ingredients and you send them there just because you want a visual element that goes along with it.
Where things can get very tricky if you are taking a screenshot of someone, be very cautious because people have certain rights in their images as well.
It’s not just copyright, but you have rights to your likeness.
So, there are rights to publicity and different things along those lines, rights to privacy. So, especially if, let’s say you’re using, who’s a famous chef, let’s say you’re using an image of Ina Garten from a video that she had done. Then you want to be really careful because she likely has a lot of rights to publicity in her image as a public figure. So, you want to be careful about using images of people, but if you created your own video image, then linking out, there’s no issue with that because that’s something that you’re creating and it’s just linking over to their content.
CHUCK:
Yeah. Well, it really is interesting. Yeah, lots of nuances for people to keep up with. So, one of the best ways to avoid issues, of course, is to use images that you’ve purchased. I’m a huge fan of Depositphotos. Twice a year through AppSumo (and I’ll put a link to that in the show notes) you can get a ton of credits. And I think the last bundle of credits I got, maybe I got 100 credits, meaning access to 100 images for 30 or 40 bucks.
DANIELLE:
So good.
CHUCK:
Do the math. These are fantastic images, there’s nothing cheesy about the great body of these kinds of images. But the nice thing is that they come with the rights to use them. You can get the big ones, you can get the small ones, there’s no distinguishing in terms of the rights to use them, there’s no attribution.
You basically just simply are buying the rights when you download that image and pay your, in this case, 40 cents.
I have just a quick side story. When I first started in this business, there were stock photo houses back in the 70s, in New York where I got my start. And my boss was typically paying $700 for a stock image at that time. So, the fact that we can get really high quality images … too bad for the photographers, really, who are creating the content because their businesses have been sucked out from underneath them in a lot of cases. But for us content creators, a place like Depositphotos, or VectorStock, there are a number of places where you can buy the rights along with the image and then you’re safe.
DANIELLE:
I think that stock photography has gotten a bad name in some circumstances, and I think that they have made great strides. If you looked at it maybe five to 10 years ago, oh, man, stock photography really just looked like stock photography. It would be the most perfect picture of an apple or somebody doing something super cheesy with the apple.
And then there’s sometimes, if you look up bad stock online, you can often find some very funny memes and things showing the wide variety of things that you might find featured.
And what I think is important is there has just been a revolution in stock photography that I think it has gotten so good. And one of the biggest complaints I heard for years was the sheer lack of diversity in representation. And I think that there are many companies that are really moving toward greater inclusion and representation in their images.
So, you really can find better stock, better representation, better inclusion, and have the ability to know exactly what your rights are to that content. And just be really clear because if you are… We’re talking about content creators, so there is always a potential commercial aspect for this. So, you need to be clear on how you can use things commercially.
So, if you are using it as the cover of an ebook that you are putting onto your website and charging $10 for, or higher or whatever the case might be, you need to make sure that you have the ability to do that because sometimes you may need a different license than just the bare bones license.
I know on Creative Market is a good example and other companies, they make their rights really clear. If you want to use it for this thing and you’re going to charge money for the way it’s featured, then it’s going to be this extended license, as opposed to this other license, or if it’s going to have a certain number of views, I think some will say. If it’s going to be seeing more than 250,000 times, you need this other license, as opposed to the less expensive. So, just have an idea of how you want to use it to make sure you are getting the appropriate license.
CHUCK:
Yeah, that’s great. I’m glad you brought up the idea about inclusion and diversity too, Danielle, because I’m finding that it’s a lot easier to not only find those images, if you’re looking, it’s a lot easier to find them if you’re not looking. By that, I mean that if you’re on depositphotos.com and you type in woman at laptop with coffee, they will present you with a number of diverse images right off the top.
And I think the algorithm has been smartened up to bring that type of content to the foreground. And I think it just reminds everyone that we really do need to be more inclusive with our content creation.
DANIELLE:
I agree with you. I can tell you just from personal experience. If I went and I don’t really know what the timing looks like, let’s say it was five to seven years ago to some of the sites and entered lawyer, I guarantee you, it would have been an older white man in a pinstripe suit every time, and in a wood-paneled office, surrounded by a bunch of books, probably a little scary looking. And I just always thought I’m like, “I am not that lawyer in any way, shape, or form.” So, it was always a little bit daunting to try to find images that worked, and now it is so much easier to find things.
And there are certain stock sites that are popping up that really are focused on just certain types of inclusion, whether it is body inclusion, ableist, making sure that you’re not using ableist images is how I should phrase that. But there is a really wide breadth of images available and I just think it’s a great time to take advantage of it.
So if, as a content creator, you have this idea of stock in your head as being like, it’s the worst, because I think for so long, people are like, “Oh, don’t use stock, it’s awful.” Now, it’s a lot better.
CHUCK:
Yeah. Yeah, it really has. Yeah. We’re in a whole new era. And one thing you mentioned to me previously, Danielle, I think is worth touching on. And that is that with all the tools that we have, the different streaming platforms, and being able to go live on Facebook and all those kinds of things, I think we really are. And as you pointed out to me, we’re generating our own content, which really does navigate nicely in this world of copyright confusion because we’re creating our own content, so there’s no issue.
DANIELLE:
I think whenever you can use your own content, that’s the best way to go. But I’m not an exceptional photographer, just like my cooking skills. So, I usually will work with a photographer to say, “Okay, I need to capture a certain number of branded images that I can use with head shots.” And I’m very clear with them, I need the ability to edit, to remove backgrounds, and to know that this isn’t going to be a problem if I’m creating derivative works. And they’re always, they say, “That’s fine.” So, some of it can be a matter of as you’re creating those images, just making sure you’re communicating with the professionals who would be the copyright holder and just saying, “Okay, I need to either own these copyrights at the end of the day, or I need the ability, the license to be able to make the following changes to that content.”
CHUCK:
Got you. Yeah. So, let’s close with just a little discussion about Creative Commons. I think a lot of people have accidentally or on purpose gotten in searches, found their way into their Creative Commons search tool. And let’s just dive in a little bit to what those various, not necessarily to one, but if you could just talk generally about Creative Commons and how you should respond when you’re looking through those, the way they declare the rights.
DANIELLE:
I love Creative Commons. I think it is such a wonderful concept that so many creators came together and said, “I want to make sure that this content can be shared, that people can use it without coming to me and getting permission each time.”
So, what Creative Commons is, it’s a licensing structure and it gives licenses that are based on certain segments of how they have them set up. So, I believe there’s three. And so, their most common is Creative Commons, as long as you’re giving attribution. So, you’re giving credit. There may be that you are doing… The second is Attribution and ShareAlike, and so what that means is if you are creating something else, it can even be commercial, yes, I believe that one can be commercial or maybe not. Don’t quote me on that, sorry. I don’t have my notes up with the three types.
But if you’re doing ShareAlike, whatever you are creating after, you have to share it with the same creative commons license. So, you have to make sure that it’s available. You can’t create something new and then lock it down if you’re using their content. The other is that it is Creative Commons with no derivative works.
So, you can use it, but you have to use it as is, that you aren’t creating it to put into something else. So, when it comes to Creative Commons, the key is just, again, looking at the license that comes with that content. Most of the time, you are going to be including attribution. Almost every time, I think, there needs to be attribution and credit to the photographer or creator, whatever that person was.
And then whether or not you can do certain things with it is what’s going to be really important to make sure that, again, you are using it within the rights that they have created. Because they are still the copyright holder; what you are getting is a license to do certain things.
CHUCK:
Got you. Yeah, that’s great.
Well, Danielle, this has been fantastic. I hope we’ve cleared up some of the confusion. I know there’s a lot of it out there. I run into it often with my own clients and I see a fair amount of it online as well. So, hopefully, we can get this out there and clear up some of that confusion.
So, let’s tell our viewers how they can reach you and what kinds of work you would be looking for from business owners.
DANIELLE:
Sure. On the Businessese side, if you’re a person who likes to DIY, Businessese is a great place for you to start out because there are a number of different contracts and templates that I have made as easy as possible for people to create their own legal documents. If you do not want to DIY, and you’re more interested in done-for-you legal services, I can likely assist with those at Liss Legal, which is just lisslegal.com. And the goal there is to help people simplify the legal side of their business. Because I think that sometimes it seems easier to ignore, and I always want to tell people it doesn’t have to be this scary aspect of your business.
So, there I help people with contracts, intellectual property, website policies, e-commerce, all of those pieces that go to creating a very solid foundation for your online business.
CHUCK:
Yeah, that’s great. I can’t help but ask one more question and that is, how do you distinguish your business from some of these online things like LegalZoom?
DANIELLE:
So, it depends on what you’re looking for. If you are looking for DIY and you’re comparing it to LegalZoom, chances are it’s probably going to be more specific than what you find on LegalZoom. LegalZoom, and they’ve been around for a while now, but when they first started a lot of what they have is more general.
So, if you were hiring somebody, it might be a generic independent contractor form, whereas, what we have on Businessese is far more specific. So, it will be a client agreement or a group program agreement for any number of different business types. So, if it is online business owners, VAs, social media managers, website designers, graphic designers, all of those things, we’ve tried to make it specific so that it really does impact that business.
And as far as differentiating the law firm from LegalZoom, everything is still done virtually. So, it’s extremely convenient for most people where you don’t have to go to the lawyer’s office and meet with them and that type of thing, but it is very customized for your business.
CHUCK:
Yeah, that’s great. Just putting in a plug for Danielle, I encountered you someplace online. We’ve never met in person. I hired you for a couple of things and I’ve been extremely happy with the results. I believe the most recent thing was an affiliate contract for affiliates for a marketing program that I was undertaking.
So, please do take a look at Danielle’s websites and I’ll put links in the show notes below. So, Danielle, thank you so much for joining me today on the Online Video Mastery show and hopefully clearing up copyright for a whole lot of content creators.
DANIELLE:
Thank you so much for having me. It’s been a pleasure.
About Danielle:
Danielle is passionate about simplifying legal for small business owners. She is the owner of Businessese (affiliate link), which offers DIY legal templates. She also has a law firm, LISS Legal, where she focuses her practice on online business owners, bloggers & influencers, and wellness professionals. Danielle has previously served as Chief Marketing Officer and General Counsel of an influencer network, as well as general counsel and vice president of affiliate programs for an 8-figure digital health and wellness company.
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