Podcasting: Watch Out for Legal Pitfalls

Podcasts are seemingly everywhere nowadays. It doesn’t matter if your podcast is your business, or whether your podcast is intended to promote or discuss your separate, non-podcast business, podcasts have become the new form of media to disseminate information, content, opinion and news.

But podcasts aren’t without legal risk. When you publish anything to the world, you do risk legal problems. You should treat your podcast like any business, making sure that you are protected legally and that you understand the laws, rules and regulations that go with podcasting.

Here are some common ways that many podcasters get themselves in legal trouble.

Publicity and Likeness Problems

Using people’s likenesses or their names, can be a tricky legal prospect.

On the one hand, you do have a right to use someone’s name, image or likeness in your podcast, without permission, if you are doing it for genuine newsworthy purposes-especially if that person is a public figure.

So, for example, you can comment on something that a politician or movie star or athlete did or said, and that is generally OK. If it is generally first amendment protected speech, as a general rule, you are usually safe.

But Florida does have strong right to privacy laws. These laws prohibit you from using someone’s name, image or likeness to promote your product or use for profit, without their permission.

So, for example, you could, legally, say in your podcast that NBA athlete Lebron James had a bad game.

However, just using his voice or clips of his voice or saying something like Lebron James approves of your podcast, may not be newsworthy-you are using his voice to embellish, help, or promote your product.

If you are having guests on your show, make sure that they acknowledge that their name, voice, and statements, can and will be used for any purposes on your podcasts.

Intellectual Property Problems

There is a wealth of copyrighted material that can be recorded, screen grabbed, or somehow dropped into your podcast. But just because it’s available online, doesn’t mean it’s legal to use it.

Remember that even a random sound, or a 2-3 second musical clip, or a photograph, all are the intellectual property of those who created those works.

Defamatory Statements

You certainly have a first amendment right to give your opinion on whatever you choose to speak about on your podcast. But be wary of defamation. And remember—even if you just “rebroadcast” something defamatory (for example, you say that “the wall street journal reported” something that turns out to be defamatory) you can be liable for defamation, just as the original source may be. It’s not a defense to say “I was just saying what that website already reported.”

You do have some leeway again, when it comes to public figures, more so than you do with those not in the public eye. But either way—check your facts and if in doubt, run questionable material through an attorney before publishing it in your podcast.

Let us help you with your podcast or whatever other marketing materials you may be using, to avoid legal problems.  Call our Fort Lauderdale business litigation lawyers at Sweeney Law P.A. at 954-440-3993 for help.