This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey there, Chris Guillebeau, your host of Side Hustle School. Welcome to the podcast. Every single day, new episodes, new questions, new case studies, ideas, tips on how you can make extra money without quitting your job. What is the best way to do that? There are so many different options these days.
And we try to focus on ideas that are a little bit lesser known or more unconventional. But of course, we've got listeners out there who send in all kinds of questions about their ideas. And it's really fun to just see how can we help one person and hopefully by proxy other people as well who are trying to figure out what the best idea is or how to proceed with their idea, how to market it, how to make it happen. How do you go from idea to income in essence? And so today we're gonna hear from Rob.
He is a future podcast host. Rob has an interesting question. It's all about, well, it's a kind of a mix up of creative and legal. Now I'm better at creative than legal, just to be clear. I'm not an attorney, don't give advice.
I don't give legal advice, I should say. But this is pretty simple because what Rob is trying to figure out is, he wants to do biographical podcasts. There's so many podcasts that are like telling people's life stories, like inspirational stories, sometimes of famous people, sometimes of, I don't know, also lesser known people, but people in the public eye of some fashion or have done something interesting or amazing, probably more than just interesting, right? And Rob is looking for guidance on how to navigate the potential legal and ethical waters of retelling public figures' stories, okay? So can you just do this?
Basically, that's it. It's like if you want to have a podcast telling historical stories, you really need someone's permission, how does that work? So let's listen to Rob, see what he's wondering and see if we can be helpful. His question's coming up in just 30 seconds. [Music]
Hello there.
My name's Rob and I'm calling from Fort Lauderdale. As a longtime fan of your show, I've been inspired to start my own podcast focusing on the life stories of public figures, especially those in the entertainment industry. Here's what I'm wondering. Do I need to obtain written consent if I want to share a public figure's story, even if I'm retelling it in my own words? I noticed that stories are often shared and retold, but I don't want to cross any lines legally or ethically.
Your advice would be greatly appreciated. [Music]
Hey Rob, thanks for being out there. Excited to hear about your podcast. Let us know when you've got a name for it. Let us know once it's up.
We'd love to share it with listeners. And by the way, listeners, when you send in your projects, feel free to mention that. If there's a website, I'm always happy to send people to it. So Rob, this is pretty simple. In most cases, you can retell a public figure's story or comment on it, especially if it is a known part of their public persona or public record.
But there are just a couple of key points to keep in mind just to make sure you're respecting various boundaries. So this is probably obvious, but you should avoid making any false or damaging statements about the individual, which you don't usually do when you're telling their life story in an inspirational way, but you want to make sure that what you're saying is true and not negative or something that you're just completely making up. So it's good to touch on some facts, which are pretty established, but then also talk about, okay, why is this inspirational? And this is where you bring more of yourself into it. Why is this inspirational to you?
What was interesting about it? What was compelling about it? Why is this accomplishment of this person's particular narrative arc or whatever you're focusing on? Why did you find it so pertinent? And what do you think your listeners can take from it?
That's kind of what I try to do here essentially. And then I guess the second thing is if you're directly quoting from a written work or a speech, you want to be mindful of copyright laws, which would take much more time than we have to go into in detail. But the short version there is just brief quotes are totally fine. Brief quotes for the purpose of commenting or reporting even criticism like that typically falls under the umbrella of what's known as fair use, okay? But if you're extensively quoting, if you're like, hey, I'm gonna read like four chapters of this person's biography over the next three hours, that's a different thing.
Most likely, you're not thinking of doing that, so you'll be fine. And then just last but not least, always strive to do this in a respectful and fair manner. Just focus on presenting things in an engaging and respectful way, and that goes a long way. Again, not legal advice, but hopefully that's gonna help you navigate the process. Good luck, sounds interesting.
Listeners, if you have a question, sidehustleschool.com/questions. We'll continue to feature them each week along with updates from other listeners as they launch and grow their projects. I'm cheering you on wherever you are, whatever you're up to. New episode every day. My name is Chris Guillebeau.
This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
