Putting Interviews on the Web

Any legal considerations?

[Jane_Doe]

My friend's mother is a retired writing teacher and is interested in doing contract writing work for me. The problem is I'm used to putting up research articles and she would prefer to do interviews with people on topics related to my site.

I think interviews would work okay, but I was wondering what the legal issues are.

Do you have to get release forms or anything like that for interviews? These would not be hard hitting expose type pieces, just interviews with local government or business people talking about what they do. If there are any books or web sites anyone could recommend about the legalities of putting interviews online I would appreciate that info.

[monkeythumpa]

If they are videos you are putting up on the site you need a release form, if under 18 you need their parents consent, but if it is just text you must notify them and make them aware that you are publishing their interview. A written acknowledgement is preferred for legal reasons. They can say no, and in that case you can only paraphrase what they said and not use their name.

[hunderdown]

If you want to make sure that the information in the interviews is accurate, it's a good idea in any case to have the subjects review them before they go online. Let them change their words to what they WISH they had said. Why not?