Best Practices for Using Third-Party Content in Podcasts

What are the rules for using content that isn’t your own?

This was asked today during my podcast and it's a crucial topic for podcasters who often reference books, movies, and other media in their shows.

Using someone else's content without permission can lead to significant legal issues. I'll share the guidelines I follow and please keep in mind that this is not legal advice. It's solely my experience and understanding of how this works.

🧐 Key Guidelines:

- Copyright law gives creators exclusive rights to their work, including the rights to copy, distribute, display, and create derivative works. Always assume you need permission to use any copyrighted work, whether it's music, photos, or audio and video clips.

- 'Fair Use' allows for limited use of copyrighted material without permission for things like criticism, commentary, news reporting, or teaching. Relying on 'Fair Use' is risky though, because it can be subjective.

- Having written agreements, including for guest appearances, helps to protect you and your podcast!

- Consult an attorney (like Gordon Firemark for example!) if you have any questions, doubts or if you simply want to learn best practices.

💡 Your Turn: How do you handle using external content in your podcast? Have you ever faced challenges with copyright issues? 

For more of this discussion, check out episode 124: podpage.com/pmc/s1e124