They’ll be in the thread to answer writer legal questions for an hour. The rest of the Substack team and fellow writers are also here for you to answer general questions.
What do I do if I find someone copying or plagiarizing my work? Copyright law offers authors of original works broad protection against copying, including many (but not all) cases of plagiarism. Copyright enforcement in the courts isn’t likely to be a practical solution in most cases, but there are often other approaches, like takedown notices sent to content hosts under the DMCA, that can see individual offending items removed reasonably quickly and efficiently. To get started: Visit Substack’s Copyright Dispute Policy to learn about the DMCA process which implements this notice-and-takedown procedure.
Can I protect the confidentiality of my sources if I publish a controversial article? It’s an awfully good question — the unfortunate kind of question that can only be answered with a lawyerly “maybe.” The First Amendment offers some protection against compelled disclosure of journalist’s sources, but just how much and in what circumstances is hotly contested and is treated differently in courts across the U.S. The vast majority of states also have reporter’s shield laws that provide more predictable protection but these vary from state to state, define the protected class of journalists in different ways, and will not necessarily be available when dealing with a federal subpoena (there is no federal reporter’s shield). If this kind of disclosure is a concern, it’s likely worth talking with a lawyer. To get started: Learn more at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press Reporter’s Privilege Compendium.
Are you facing legal uncertainty or pressure because of your writing? Substack Defender offers legal support for writers ranging from legal review of stories before publishing and responses to cease-and-desist letters. Learn more.
Drop your questions in the thread and we’ll do our best to supercharge each other.
Our team will be in the thread today answering questions with you. Join us from 2 pm - 3 pm PT / 5 pm - 6 pm ET.
Please be aware that these answers are general, and are NOT personal legal advice. Mike and Tim cannot give you personalized legal advice in this format. They can answer broad questions, but if you need specific advice about a particular situation, they cannot provide it in this format. They are ONLY offering general information about the law. By answering your question, they are NOT agreeing to represent you in any capacity.
I have begun working with a start-up online news source, The Colorado Switchblade. We intend to write deep investigative and features pieces. We ran part one of a series of stories Monday about allegations made against a high school teacher for inappropriate touching and language. All of the Title IX investigative docs were leaked to us. We didn't publically identify the 3 accusers or the additional 5 women who corroborated the allegations. This is a small town and the women made no secret of the charges. It's fair to say they outed themselves, but although their identities were not revealed, two parents complained, threatened law suits, and the school investigators said our story had made the women fearful of retribution. All three declined to be interviewed. Because we don't want to face lawsuits, and do not yet have representation, we took down the story, for the moment, but we are continuing to investigate the allegations. The teacher is much beloved by most of his students.
I love the Office Hours discussions. How do I find past editions? Are they searchable or indexed in some way? If I kinda remember a comment in a thread, and want to look it up, how do I find it?
I have a question for the Substack team that is not a legal issue. It's about using that recording option to just read a post. I have done several drafts already, but have not published. If you record your post, does it automatically go out with the post to email and to our website? I'm trying to time it so the email recipients only get one email that contains both the written post and the recorded oral reading. I believe you thought this was a good idea—to give subscribers another way to access our posts. Im confused about the correct timing of doing this.
That helps! I listened to some of her reading and got a few ideas about how to correct my style...I go too fast! I guess the idea is to get my act together enough to have time to perfect the reading before I post the written portion...
Hey thanks for this opportunity. Question: What copyright licenses are necessary to obtain for republication of excerpts from scientific papers/studies with one or more authors listed? I'd like to publish/post various copies of published studies from pubmed and other scientific databases online. I imagine each original publication has their own licensing terms & membership requirements, but to be safe is it necessary to obtain a license from each author listed in each study? Or is a republication license from the original publication generally sufficient?
Just noting that the following is true in U.S. contexts, and the rules may be a little different elsewhere—
*If* the authors own the copyright, permission is only need from a single co-owner to authorize republication.
Authors of scientific articles often assign their copyright to the publisher (for free, if you can believe it), in which case they would not be able to authorize any reuse.
An increasing percentage of scientific articles are published under open access licenses (generally, Creative Commons licenses), that might authorize your republication. Look to see if there's any license applied to the work.
Finally, some quotation and excerpting may be done under fair use, without requiring permission. A good place to start learning about fair use can apply in different contexts is with the CMSI best practices guides — https://cmsimpact.org/report-list/codes/.
I have a hobby of taking already published photos and writing humorous captions to them. For example, President Obama was attending an important international political convocation and he was photographed with a beautiful, blond, svelte young woman who was then ambassador to or from Denmark. (Not sure of this; might have been some other Scandinavian country.) But Michelle was seated to their side observing the obviously good-natured and happy sharing that was going on between the other two. Her face bore an unmistakable angry and troubled expression . The caption:
Just wait til I get you home, Sucka...
My question: Can I use someone else's photos for this purpose? Will I be breaking the law if I do?
In the U.S.. there are cases where you can use other people's protected works without permission, generally under "fair use" which examines a uses on a case-by-case basis to determine if they're fair. Fair use is highly fact-specific, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach; most likely, some captioning gags like yours would be considered fair, others would not be.
Among the things that can *help* make a use fair are—
• Communicating a message with substantial public value, or substantial freedom of expression value, *especially* a message about the work being borrowed
• Taking only what you need of the original work. For photos, this can mean cropping the image or using a lower resolution copy
• Trying not to use images that are created for the purpose of being licensed for reuse.
You can't have certainty about a fair use outcome, but you can use best practices to put yourself on the best possible footing. Many images are also freely licensed under Creative Commons licenses that expressly permit their reuse, and U.S. government works are in the public domain in the United States, and can be used without copyright concerns.
I wrote a blog for Wordpress several years ago, but when I went to try to upload it to my newsletter, the legal mumbo jumbo scared me off. Does that blog I wrote belong just to me?
All original content you publish on a WordPress site (either on WordPress.com or on a self-hosted site running WordPress software) is explicitly yours. WordPress does not assert any rights to it whatsoever and the ability to move your content to another platform is one of their main selling points.
I haven't reviewed the Wordpress terms of service, and can't speak to the specifics of your situation. However! It is very, very, very unusual for any service like Wordpress to take ownership of users' works — and it would be *hard* for them to do so because copyright transfers require a "signed writing" under U.S. law. Generally, you will know if you've signed away your ownership!
I didn't sign anything but I am not terribly internet savvy, so I was concerned. One other workbook I published (in print) was quite different so I might take a chance.
I wondering if there is any legal issue with readership age: if I post MG (middle-grade, ages 9-11 or so) novels on Substack... will that be a problem?
Totally unrelated to your question, but I just took a peak at your newsletter and love the topic! I write about the outdoors in my substack, but would love to self-publish my story anthology in the near future! Hoping I can pick up some great tips!
Hi Cole! That was quick... you signed up! Thank you! Short fiction? Bring it on! I will check out yours--I've caught the hiking bug in the past few years...
Good to know... maybe it's time to finally make better use of my own alisonachesonkids site then... been wondering what to do with it! Thank you for the answer, Bailey!
Actual legal question: if I wrote an article which originally appeared in another publication, am I at risk of running afoul by republishing it on my substack? I never signed away my copyright in any way at the time of publication.
The general rule is that you should assume that images you find online will require permission to use (and potentially royalties).
If you get images from a stock image company, these images are "cleared" - you're paying for the rights to use the image. The comment below is good too: "Creative Commons" licensed images (available on Flickr and elsewhere) are images where permission is given by the creator to use freely without needing permission.
We just hosted Substack Grow, a crash course for writers ready to pursue independence by building a loyal readership and kickstarting paid subscriptions.
After 3 weeks of publishing a weekly newsletter, Health & Wealth reached over 100 subscribers! 🎉
This was built entirely from scratch - published with my first name only / a new Twitter account @healthwealthgen starting with 0 followers. My thanks to all the H&W early adopters for giving my work a slice of their attention 🙏
I was going to ask a question about photo licenses, but that's already been asked by someone!
So instead: I've been reading some of Substack's growth tactic resources and would love to hear from more fellow writers — what have been some of the highest yield strategies you've used to grow your audience?
Still very new to this, open to suggestions/feedback as well as cross-promotions/collabs with those who write about topics related to health, science, or investing :)
Thank you! I've primarily grown from Twitter traffic - getting consistent growth over time by regularly posting + getting an uptick last Sunday when a big FinTwit account interacted with my work/subscribed
Hey Jay! We normally have open Office Hours sessions on Thursdays, but this week we asked our lawyers to come in to help answer those questions more specifically. Stay tuned for the next Office Hours session, or you can peruse our resources posts now if you want to dig into strategy: https://on.substack.com/s/resources
True story, I actually plan my Thursdays around your office hours since it's such a great way to share information and knowledge. Today I forgot they were in the afternoon and had to reschedule a hair cut last minute to make it XD
Applications are open to US-based writers who have enabled paid subscriptions and publish work that may attract unreasonable legal pressure, such as abuses of copyright laws, assaults on first amendment rights, and spurious defamation claims. Upon acceptance to the program, writers can use a separate form to request help for specific cases.
Substack will make the ultimate choice on who is accepted into the program and which cases to support.
Not a legal question, but you force people to charge at least $30/yr or $5/mo. Others do not have this, making me inclined to use one of those. Any plans to allow us to charge whatever we want since we are not 4?
I'd suggest that a $12 / yr would be appropriate, or even a rate of $6 / quarter. It appears someone took the base of $5, decided that the minimum transaction fees would be too high of a %% for smaller charges. But then, they just offered an annual price, based on that $5 / month. Granted, charging fees on a $1-2 buy consumes most of the costs. But, if $1-2 / month is what some readers/writers want, eliminate the monthly, and then just offer an annual, semi-annual, or even a quarterly @ $6 / month. -- Just my 2 cent opinions, of course...
1) Do you have any links to anti-SLAPP motions you've filed successfully in California state courts? 2) Have you been able to transfer defamation and other anti-speech cases to federal court? If so, other than diversity jurisdiction, how? 3) given CA's anti-SLAPP law, which venue do you believe is most favorable to the CA writer?
Not a legal question, but could the substack team take a look at adding an edit function when adding links to the main page? Am I missing something? It seems I can only delete and make new links, not edit them.
yes this is what I mean. I used the feature for the first time today on my outdoor substack, to add some fast links to educational guides I'm writing. Going back and making tweaks to make it all look pretty is exhaustive
Hi Ben, is there any way to get updates on previous feature requests, or what features are currently being worked on? Some examples: Adding the "sections" navigation bar links to the top of the archive page. Allowing the thumbnail images displayed on the front page to be higher resolution if the post's main image is small, etc.
Thank you so much. Love the look of links by the way -- it's such a cool idea and it's perfect for creating the kind of publication I want. This option would just make it easier to do tweaks!
Hey there! We are live in this thread. Feel free to type your answers in here, and the Substack team, and your fellow writers, will answer as best as we can!
I had a blog that I did not renew and was thus sold off to someone who then posted my articles as if it was his. A few friends from the US told me that I should take action against him. I did nothing of that sort as all I had wanted was for my articles to be read by as many as possible.
As far as I am concerned whatever I write is for public consumption and they may do what they like with it.
My sole aim in writing what I have discovered over the years by teaching dyslexic kids is to educate the public. The more readers who share it or copy it and use it as their own the better.
This is a peculiar situation and I wonder if there isn't something rather easy for you to do to stop someone else from benefitting from your content. What platform was your blog on? If it was a site like WordPress.com or Blogger, that should never have happened. If you were self-hosting it and your domain lapsed, then as soon as you stopped paying for hosting, the site should have gone down.
Thank you very much for your response. My articles were on www.parentingdyslexia.com. I was glad that more readers were able to read what I had written.
I was able to copy-paste all my previous articles into my new blog at www.dyslexiafriend.com.
My former domain name having lapsed was put up for sale by GoDaddy. It was bought by someone else together with all the articles on my blog.
So I'm confused. Your website exists in two parts - the domain and the hosting. If your domain lapsed, then yes, someone else could buy it and use it. But your hosting is separate. If you stopped paying for it, the site should have just gone down. If you are still paying for it, and it's still connected to a domain registered at GoDaddy, then it's possible your old site could still be available. When I go to that link, I don't see anything there, so it looks like maybe it's finally shut down?
Anyway, it's good that you were able to republish your old articles. Just make sure you have auto-renew turned on your new domain so this doesn't ever happen again! :)
Thank you once again, Jackie. Yes, I am still paying for my new blog domain. There was a short time when those who searched the old domain it was redirected to my new domain.
Yes, I am glad that I republished all my earlier posts.
Question about parody vs satire. I can create film parodies of Harry Potter that are legally protected, but if I re-use clips from the movies to satirize racism or colonialism or other topics, am I protected?
Weirdly enough, U.S. law does tend to be a little bit less forgiving of satire than it is of parody. But either can be a legally protected "fair use" — or either could be infringing, depending on the details. The key thing is always to be safely within a copyright exception that applies to your jurisdiction. For considering questions about fair use, I recommend the best practices guides made by CMSI — https://cmsimpact.org/report-list/codes/.
Happy Thursday everyone!! In honor of today's topic, a fun movie involving the legal profession is "Legally Blonde" (2001) about Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon), a college student who enters Harvard Law School in an effort to win back her ex-boyfriend.
Life Lesson: Learn to see the potential in yourself and in others.
Hello to the Substack attorneys and my fellow writers,
IMy question for the attorneys is about using photos. How do I know if they are "royalty free"? If they are NOT affiliated with a stock agency? I noticed that some Substack writers (Michael Moore), for one, uses photos and gives a photo credit, like: Getty Images, Steve Hall, for example. But it's certainly possible he paid a fee for the use of that photo. Unless I'm looking in the wrong places, it is pretty difficult to come up with a decent photo that clearly says it is free for anyone to use. What am I missing? And thanks!
Hi Joan! Yes - the general rule is that you should assume that images you find online will require permission to use (and potentially royalties).
If you get images from a stock image company, these images are "cleared" - you're paying for the rights to use the image. The comment below is good too: "Creative Commons" licensed images (available on Flickr and elsewhere) are images where permission is given by the creator to use freely without needing permission.
I can guarantee you that someone like Michael Moore is paying for those images. Getty in particular is VERY aggressive about chasing down unlicensed images and they will pursue costly legal action if they find any.
You need to either pay for a license to use an image from Getty, the AP, etc. or use free photo sites like the ones listed below. If in doubt, don't use them. Life's too short to have a major corporation coming after your little newsletter for copyright infringement. (And they will.)
All content created by someone in the US is protected by copyright law, meaning that the content creator (including you!) automatically possesses all rights to it unless they assign rights to someone else or explicitly assert Creative Commons or Copyleft or other similar releases from copyright. If you contact the copyright holder for permission, and don't receive a response, that means you have not been given rights to it and therefore you cannot legally use it.
You cannot legally use a copyrighted image unless you have permission of the owner or have licensed the image from a stock image site. Even on a free blog where you're not making any money.
I use Unsplash and Pexels and other copyright-free/creative commons images, and always try to credit the source. These days there are a lot to choose from.
I use Pixabay: "All content on Pixabay can be used for free for commercial and noncommercial use across print and digital, except in the cases mentioned in 'What is not allowed'." https://pixabay.com/service/license/
Thanks to the Substack team for providing this venue. I'd like to hear from the legal team their view of having a paid substack as a sole proprietor or an LLC. I've had an LLC before and it was a lot of paperwork, deadlines, and filings. I'd really prefer not to go down that road again, if possible. Thanks for advice.
Hi Heather. So, this is a matter of tradeoffs - while the paperwork is more complex with being an LLC and you generally need to pay annual fees, the benefit of having a legal entity is the liability protection: if you ever encounter any legal issues, your personal assets face less risk if you have an LLC. On the other hand, sole proprietor businesses are easier to manage and don't have these annual costs, but there is also somewhat more risk if a legal issue were to arise.
I could use a legal defense because readers say my Substack is killing it! But in all seriousness, people are going to copy/steal/use your work. I already see it in my SEO results, it happens. What can we do?
Most platforms will have an area on-site where you can submit what's known as a DMCA copyright takedown (the Substack one is here: https://substack.com/dispute). If someone is violating your copyright - this is a good place to start: platforms are obligated to take down this content unless and until they receive a counter notice from the person that posted it.
But, it's worth being careful with these takedowns, as we note on our copyright dispute page, improper filing notices can expose you to legal liability.
I have long counseled people building websites or creating content to never put anything on the internet that you can't stand to see stolen. Because if it's good enough, someone will try. It's the nature of things. Even if you watermark images, put copyright notices on your posts or websites, use other tech tricks to keep people from copy/pasting or downloading it or whatever, there's always a way around it. The only real solution I can offer is to keep creating more, because no one can steal it all, and to realize that in most cases you will still be able to benefit (financially or otherwise) from your work - even if someone bootlegs your novel and republished it, or uses your artwork on their website or T shirts, you still own the rights and can keep moving forward with new content, while the others have to keep copying other people's.
So I guess my advice is, to just let things go and don't worry about it too much, because you can't stop it, and becoming too worried about IP theft will make you less inclined to create and share in the first place - and that's when you really lose.
Because I question the official narrative about the pandemic and the vaccines and cite official vaccine death count numbers from the CDC's VAERS site (nearly 15,000 deaths to date), I've been censorsed on google owned platforms like youtube and gmail for about 6 months now. Also, to a lesser extent on facebook. In other words, I not allowed to cite official facts put out by the government, nor can I make a comment or post a link to my substack on those platforms. In short, my Constitutional rights to free speech have been taken away. Do I have any legal recourse?
Great opportunities I never I intended to be a part of. I need to delete this part without losing my connection/subscription to Alex Berenson. Thank you so much. 😔
I guess a good question is: Are these lawyers going to take cases where, for example, if I had no access to funds, and possibly couldn't pay them back? I would fight the case, but It would be a hard thing to think about the responsibilities of having to pay a lawyer when a good lawyer is hard to find and keep. Also fighting the case as well, and thinking about all the possibilities of losing a case too.
If you're referring to Substack Defender, you can read more about it here - https://on.substack.com/p/legal-support-for-substack-writers. "For this first iteration of the program, applications are open to US-based writers who have enabled paid subscriptions and publish work that may attract unreasonable legal pressure, such as abuses of copyright laws, assaults on first amendment rights, and spurious defamation claims. Upon acceptance to the program, writers can use a separate form to request help for specific cases. Substack will make the ultimate choice on who is accepted into the program and which cases to support. Once a case has been taken on by the program’s lawyers, Substack, at our discretion, will cover fees up to $1 million (in exceptional cases, we may cover even more)."
Do you have any recommendations or guidelines around disclaimers for financial advice? I include one in my footnotes, but I’d really appreciate any feedback about handling this. (For context, I write an investing newsletter that analyzes companies.)
This would vary place to place. The US has what are probably the most robust free speech protections in the world. For instance: In the US, if someone wants to sue you for libel the burden of proof is on them. In the UK, you have to prove your own innocence in a lot of ways - that means someone with overpowered lawyers can often put the hurt on you where a US suit would quickly fail.
Every country is going to have these kinds of differences. Even Canada (America's hat!) is much less protective of speech; they come down much harder on what is/isn't hate speech, for instance. For you to know about your particular jurisdiction, you'd have to study that jurisdiction independently.
I was wondering what will happen if someone from some countrily other tha ln mine choose to do plagiarise my content. Does the standard general plagiarism norice to take down the content still works tge same way? Is it universal?
International treaties mean copyright protections are broadly similar most everywhere in the world. Cross-border enforcement can be difficult in formal channels like courts, but less formal avenues (like US DMCA takedown notices), are often broadly available regardless of jurisdiction. We have a little note about DMCA notices above.
OK, so, if I'm writing an article, and I quote a tweet in it, and that tweet contains an image, AND it's the first image in the article, it will automatically set that image as the splash image for the article itself.
Let's say the image is not public domain: should I be worried about this?
Maybe a little bit! Best practice is to have a justification (for instance, under fair use) for any image you use. Folks *may* have slightly better legal protection when using embedded images, and that protection is lost where the image is used outside the embed context . . . so this situation is a little less than ideal, but if there's have an independent legal justification the splash image would only have a marginal effect on the legal exposure.
I would recommend you make it a routine to add a copyright-free image (styled to fit your newsletter and with the right aspect ratio) as the first image in each Substack, which solves that problem AND makes your list of articles on your Substack page look a lot tidier.
I'm not a lawyer but I can answer this one: Unless the image is your own you should always add an attribute. Always. But some images are protected and you need to know that, too. If you add an image without permission or an attribute you may be called on it at some point. Don't take that chance. Just do it the right way from the start.
There are plenty of free sources for images. Wikimedia is just one of them.
Greetings fellow Stackers, My query is not on legal matters but on advertising analytics. Can one attain a Google analytics pixel ID through one's site on Substack? What about Google tag manager. Thanks
You can! there's a box for it in the "settings" page. It's never worked very well for me, though; this might be because I'm bad at GA. No on the tag manager, as far as I know
Good question. A couple things to to note here: open rates are already not super-reliable and especially for writers (as opposed to companies trying to market products) we advise against putting too much weight on open rates. The more relevant metrics are things like audience growth over time. But the answer to your specific question is yes, there will definitely be some impact on measuring open rates.
Hi there Substack writers, a couple of weeks ago I asked the community about Reddit - some had earlier opined that it was a good place for finding one's readership. I jumped into the site and was immediately shut down, just for saying "hello" to the Writing subreddit. I promised to follow up with my subsequent experience.
Learnings:
1) one of you pointed me in the direction of a detailed onboarding document, written by Reddit, about how to behave in their world; this was super helpful and I have been guided by it ever since
2) Reddit is one odd place on the internet, a mix of kind / helpful souls, confused souls, and trolls; navigating through these is an art-form, to say the least; I started with a handful of subreddits, just looking and commenting helpful words here and there; eventually I landed on a small set of subreddits that make sense for my topics of interest
3) next came the karma effort; karma is their virtual currency that allows you to contribute content without being shutdown; very different from Twitter; following the example of Substack's First1000 author, I dedicated time every day for a couple of weeks, gently adding helpful advice to redditors asking various questions; soon I reached the magic 100 karma points
4) and so, this week, I published the September edition of The Strategy Toolkit (on strategy & biology); via Substack, I was able to post to the strategy subreddit; the next day, I followed up with a post to the biology subreddit
Overall, a time intensive effort but successful in terms of outbound. I will let you know if I gain any subscribers as a result.
I would agree with David C. Benson. Each Subreddit is different. I've been on Reddit over 10 years but knowing how things can go, I was reluctant to share one of my recent Substack articles on Reddit. I was talked through it and did so, sharing an article I wrote about an old local bridge to a local subreddit, and not only was it well-received with a bunch of upvotes, but a couple of people encouraged me to share more in the future AND gave me a few tips for additional sources to find more historical info in the future.
What I learned is that if you approach Reddit as a place to sincerely share in the spirit of whichever subreddit you're in, and what you're sharing fits with what others are doing (and you follow the subreddit's rules), you can definitely make it happen. But what is 100% legit and desired in one subreddit might get you banned in another, so you have to really pay attention to what you're doing.
I'll add that Reddit experiences vary wildly, mostly according to what the mod of any given subreddit thinks about Original Content [OC] writing. In some subreddits, the entire purpose is for people to post their [OC]. Those subreddits tend to be more "graphic art" oriented, but with some writing interspersed. Other subreddits act like they are allergic to OC, and are very hostile to it. Sometimes they will even de facto block Substack, Medium etc. on the assumption the poster is posting their own work, which some mods consider "spamming."
The difference seems to be between mods who see Reddit as a forum for discussion, a platform for signaling, or a "smart news aggregator." If someone sees the purpose of Reddit is "I have an idea, let's talk about it" then they're happy to welcome an author sharing and interacting with community members, especially since a blog or substack can have features Reddit cannot. If the purpose is to signal what you like or dislike, or to make essentially a community-curated RSS feed, then putting your own stuff in feels like cheating, since no one really cares what you think in either case. The only way to get a sense of which subreddit is which type, is to be on the board for some time, and see what gets voted up or down, and how meaningful the commentary is.
The subreddits you want as a writer are the subreddits where the readers clearly read the articles, and then discuss the writing therein. Those are the only subreddits where you can know people are actually going to click through and read what you wrote. If most of the comments are based on the title only, or mostly have emotional responses, posting to that subreddit is a waste of time. Almost no one is clicking through the link to read your article, far fewer are going to subscribe, and if anyone does subscribe they will unsubscribe as soon as you say something that disagrees with them, or after enough time passes and you don't give them the ammunition they want in whatever battle they think they are fighting.
Very helpful, David, thank you. I am a Reddit n00b, learning slowly and patiently. So far I've found little spaces that appear to be a fit, but it is early days.
Great insight George. Thanks much for sharing. Reddit is a platform which has major anti-promotions / systematic posting guidelines in certain communities. So it is useful to know them before jumping into it
Are there any legal complications entailed if doing consulting relating to your Substack? For example, if someone wanted to hire me to consult on a problem, is there a process that I need to follow with Substack to stay right with the law? I'm assuming that thinks like NDA's with the customer would be worked out between them, and that normal ethical "disclose conflicts of interest" apply. What I'm asking is what does consulting affect about my relationship with Substack, or with my copyright.
You own all of your own content on Substack, which is really just your newsletter/blog. So I can't see why it would be an issue. Plus I know a number of people who use Substack as a way to build their business, so it seems like it would be fine. What I wouldn't do is turn your Substack into your primary sales platform - instead, I'd suggest having a separate website/landing page, and weave your Substack into that.
I use Genius Links for Amazon affiliate links in my newsletter. Somewhere I read that Substack automatically deletes the affiliate ID. I want tot check whether this works for Genius Links as well?
Thanks for posting this! Very disappointing that Substack automatically removes Amazon affiliate links in the emailed newsletters, and does not send a warning or message saying so. Is there a reason for this? Will this change in the future? This certainly interferes with some people's livelihoods/ business models, etc. Affiliate links support many writers.
So perhaps to answer my own question, it is because Amazon will not accept affiliate links coming from emails.
"We do automatically strip Amazon affiliate links from the email versions of your posts, because they don't allow affiliate links that are shared by email."
Wow, had no idea that was happening. The solution might be to link only to your affiliate storefront splash page, and not to specific items. Will Substack strip out a link like this one? https://www.amazon.com/shop/esotouricbusadventures
James, could you elaborate more on the requirements to post an address to appear at the bottom of newsletters. From the "settings" page: "Business address to show at the bottom of all emails." If we use Stripe for payments, does this mean that the newsletters will include our home address to subscribers? Currently, the default shows up as: 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104.
I write TV show reviews, and I use screenshots to illustrate my points. I believe using screen shots from the TV shows falls under Fair Use, but is there any specific labeling I need to do? Right now I have an email footer that says 'all images are property of their respective owners', but do I need to get more specific?
Fair use doesn't have any labeling requirements. Courts will look askance at uses that aren't properly attributed (think in a plagiarism-y way), but reviews are generally not going to confuse anyone about who the show was made by / belongs to!
Hi George. So no LLC? I've been wondering about what to do. I've had an LLC in the past and it required a lot of paperwork. But I am concerned about the liability as an individual. Would like to hear from legal on the pros and cons.
This topic couldn't have come at a better time! Here's my question:
I'm acquainted with a professional photographer who doesn't want her photos copied and used by random people. She has given me permission to use certain photos of hers, but with attribution. My concern is that people reading my blog can click to save the photo and use it anyway, despite the copyright. Therefore, I created a watermark on the photo to make it less useable to others.
As an example, the fourth photo down on my latest post shows this watermark:
Is this adequate protection to help deter people who may potentially steal the photo? Again, the photographer has only required that mention the photo is hers, yet I want to go a step beyond in an effort to protect her art and livelihood. Thank you!
I see that writers must apply to the Substack Defender program, which I'm guessing means limited resources and triage. Is there any sort of insurance available through Substack it elsewhere, particularly in the case of nuisance suits? My student newspaper was occasionally threatened with legal action back in the day, but we either ignored it or wrote a retraction, depending. This was many years ago. Are there any new concerns we need to be aware of? Any specific instances of Substackers being sued or harassed?
I started Odd Jobs Newsletter in July and was able to grow it to over 1,000 subscribers by putting in 2-3 hours of work a week.
Here's what worked really well.
1. Giveaways
I did 3 giveaways and was able to get a huge increase of subscribers. I gave away t-shirts and books (so it didn't cost me very much) and incentivized people to share the newsletter as a way of gaining extra entires to the giveaway.
2. Google Ads
I had never tried Google ads before but this worked so well. I had a budget of $10 a day and researched keywords that my audience would be searching for that applied to the newsletter. I was able to get over 300 subscribers in a week doing this with a low ad budget.
3. Shareable Content
Every week, I make sure my newsletters are valuable, interesting, and unique so readers feel inclined to share with their friends. Plus, it's free so people want to pass along the good info. with the people they adore.v
These are so helpful- thanks for sharing! How do you do a giveaway? I mean, how do you promote it but then also how do you pick the winner? I'd like to try this and the ads idea. Thanks!
Ah! I'd be curious to know how well those work. I haven't tried any of these yet - I am still very much in the newsletter planning stage, so appreciate these insights greatly.
I hired someone on Fiverr to help with the setup and it worked pretty well for the small $10/day budget. I had to figure out the right keywords and target audience.
I have begun working with a start-up online news source, The Colorado Switchblade. We intend to write deep investigative and features pieces. We ran part one of a series of stories Monday about allegations made against a high school teacher for inappropriate touching and language. All of the Title IX investigative docs were leaked to us. We didn't publically identify the 3 accusers or the additional 5 women who corroborated the allegations. This is a small town and the women made no secret of the charges. It's fair to say they outed themselves, but although their identities were not revealed, two parents complained, threatened law suits, and the school investigators said our story had made the women fearful of retribution. All three declined to be interviewed. Because we don't want to face lawsuits, and do not yet have representation, we took down the story, for the moment, but we are continuing to investigate the allegations. The teacher is much beloved by most of his students.
Would Julian Assange and Wikileaks have been protected under SubStack's umbrella?
Wouldn’t that protections be limited to What they publish on the platform? If I’m wrong I would like to fight a few parking tickets.
I love the Office Hours discussions. How do I find past editions? Are they searchable or indexed in some way? If I kinda remember a comment in a thread, and want to look it up, how do I find it?
They are listed here! https://on.substack.com/s/resources?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=menu
Thanks for coming to Office Hours this week. I see some new faces! The Substack team is signing off for today.
Special shoutout to Mike and Tim for answering legal questions today.
If you are facing legal uncertainty or pressure because of your writing, we encourage you to learn more about Substack Defender: https://on.substack.com/p/legal-support-for-substack-writers
We'll be back next week for Office Hours as usual. Save it to your calendar: https://lu.ma/office-hours
The week following as we enter October, we'll have our favorite thread: Shoutouts! All that and more at: https://substack.com/events
Signing off,
Katie + Bailey + Rose + Mike + Tim + Jairaj + Lulu + Ben + Ari + James + Lisa
I have a question for the Substack team that is not a legal issue. It's about using that recording option to just read a post. I have done several drafts already, but have not published. If you record your post, does it automatically go out with the post to email and to our website? I'm trying to time it so the email recipients only get one email that contains both the written post and the recorded oral reading. I believe you thought this was a good idea—to give subscribers another way to access our posts. Im confused about the correct timing of doing this.
Thanks!
Hi! The audio is included in the body of the email and the webpage of the posts you send out. So text and audio can go out together as emails and as webposts. Here is an example: https://florencehrs.substack.com/p/saint-margaret-queen-of-scotland
That helps! I listened to some of her reading and got a few ideas about how to correct my style...I go too fast! I guess the idea is to get my act together enough to have time to perfect the reading before I post the written portion...
thank for this generous offering!
Hey thanks for this opportunity. Question: What copyright licenses are necessary to obtain for republication of excerpts from scientific papers/studies with one or more authors listed? I'd like to publish/post various copies of published studies from pubmed and other scientific databases online. I imagine each original publication has their own licensing terms & membership requirements, but to be safe is it necessary to obtain a license from each author listed in each study? Or is a republication license from the original publication generally sufficient?
Just noting that the following is true in U.S. contexts, and the rules may be a little different elsewhere—
*If* the authors own the copyright, permission is only need from a single co-owner to authorize republication.
Authors of scientific articles often assign their copyright to the publisher (for free, if you can believe it), in which case they would not be able to authorize any reuse.
An increasing percentage of scientific articles are published under open access licenses (generally, Creative Commons licenses), that might authorize your republication. Look to see if there's any license applied to the work.
Finally, some quotation and excerpting may be done under fair use, without requiring permission. A good place to start learning about fair use can apply in different contexts is with the CMSI best practices guides — https://cmsimpact.org/report-list/codes/.
Thanks Mike!
I have a hobby of taking already published photos and writing humorous captions to them. For example, President Obama was attending an important international political convocation and he was photographed with a beautiful, blond, svelte young woman who was then ambassador to or from Denmark. (Not sure of this; might have been some other Scandinavian country.) But Michelle was seated to their side observing the obviously good-natured and happy sharing that was going on between the other two. Her face bore an unmistakable angry and troubled expression . The caption:
Just wait til I get you home, Sucka...
My question: Can I use someone else's photos for this purpose? Will I be breaking the law if I do?
Thank you in advance for your answer.
In the U.S.. there are cases where you can use other people's protected works without permission, generally under "fair use" which examines a uses on a case-by-case basis to determine if they're fair. Fair use is highly fact-specific, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach; most likely, some captioning gags like yours would be considered fair, others would not be.
A good place to get started learning about fair use is with the CMSI best practices codes (https://cmsimpact.org/report-list/codes/).
Among the things that can *help* make a use fair are—
• Communicating a message with substantial public value, or substantial freedom of expression value, *especially* a message about the work being borrowed
• Taking only what you need of the original work. For photos, this can mean cropping the image or using a lower resolution copy
• Trying not to use images that are created for the purpose of being licensed for reuse.
You can't have certainty about a fair use outcome, but you can use best practices to put yourself on the best possible footing. Many images are also freely licensed under Creative Commons licenses that expressly permit their reuse, and U.S. government works are in the public domain in the United States, and can be used without copyright concerns.
I wrote a blog for Wordpress several years ago, but when I went to try to upload it to my newsletter, the legal mumbo jumbo scared me off. Does that blog I wrote belong just to me?
All original content you publish on a WordPress site (either on WordPress.com or on a self-hosted site running WordPress software) is explicitly yours. WordPress does not assert any rights to it whatsoever and the ability to move your content to another platform is one of their main selling points.
As stated in the WordPress.com TOS (https://wordpress.com/tos/):
"We don’t own your content, and you retain all ownership rights you have in the content you post to your website."
Okay they do assert the right to publish it etc. because they have to in order to run a website. But beyond that, it's yours to do with as you wish.
Thanks so much. Very helpful as I am pretty new to this format.
I haven't reviewed the Wordpress terms of service, and can't speak to the specifics of your situation. However! It is very, very, very unusual for any service like Wordpress to take ownership of users' works — and it would be *hard* for them to do so because copyright transfers require a "signed writing" under U.S. law. Generally, you will know if you've signed away your ownership!
I didn't sign anything but I am not terribly internet savvy, so I was concerned. One other workbook I published (in print) was quite different so I might take a chance.
Don't you have it saved in your docs?
Most likely. Somewhere. Does that prove ownership?
jumping on and waiting for answers
Sorry, that was American Thinker. Is there a difference between something written for actual publication and something written online?
Not an answer, but I did copy something I wrote for American Thinkerd on my newsletter and so far have not gotten into any trouble about it.
I wondering if there is any legal issue with readership age: if I post MG (middle-grade, ages 9-11 or so) novels on Substack... will that be a problem?
Totally unrelated to your question, but I just took a peak at your newsletter and love the topic! I write about the outdoors in my substack, but would love to self-publish my story anthology in the near future! Hoping I can pick up some great tips!
Hi Cole! That was quick... you signed up! Thank you! Short fiction? Bring it on! I will check out yours--I've caught the hiking bug in the past few years...
Data-collection laws in Europe ask that people are 16 and up to visit Substack, and in the US it is 13 and up.
Good to know... maybe it's time to finally make better use of my own alisonachesonkids site then... been wondering what to do with it! Thank you for the answer, Bailey!
Actual legal question: if I wrote an article which originally appeared in another publication, am I at risk of running afoul by republishing it on my substack? I never signed away my copyright in any way at the time of publication.
U.S. law requires a "signed writing" in order to transfer exclusive rights in copyright — see 17 USC 204 (https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/204).
Thanks for hosting this substack, as always you are super dope! If anyone wants to cross promote/do shout outs, let me know. Happy to grow together.
You and I have talked about doing this a lot, but lets finally pull the trigger!
Yeahhhhhhhhh
Let me know how to get started with you. Thanks
Hit me on Twitter @youtopianJ and we will go from there.
How do i get permission to use pics? What is the legal issue using pics from google etc.
Here are a few royalty-free stock photo libraries to check out:
Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/
Nappy: https://nappy.co/
ShotStash: https://shotstash.com/
Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/
Freepik: https://www.freepik.com/
Pixabay: https://pixabay.com/
Hi Jay, Tim shared below:
The general rule is that you should assume that images you find online will require permission to use (and potentially royalties).
If you get images from a stock image company, these images are "cleared" - you're paying for the rights to use the image. The comment below is good too: "Creative Commons" licensed images (available on Flickr and elsewhere) are images where permission is given by the creator to use freely without needing permission.
Yeah. I have to delete a few now and may be have a logo designed or a pic for my blogs incase I can't find free or get permission.
Thanks I need more information on how to build my mailing list make a better publication going paid how do I find these information
We just hosted Substack Grow, a crash course for writers ready to pursue independence by building a loyal readership and kickstarting paid subscriptions.
You can check out all the resources from that here: https://substack.com/grow
Thanks so much.
After 3 weeks of publishing a weekly newsletter, Health & Wealth reached over 100 subscribers! 🎉
This was built entirely from scratch - published with my first name only / a new Twitter account @healthwealthgen starting with 0 followers. My thanks to all the H&W early adopters for giving my work a slice of their attention 🙏
I was going to ask a question about photo licenses, but that's already been asked by someone!
So instead: I've been reading some of Substack's growth tactic resources and would love to hear from more fellow writers — what have been some of the highest yield strategies you've used to grow your audience?
Still very new to this, open to suggestions/feedback as well as cross-promotions/collabs with those who write about topics related to health, science, or investing :)
Congrats! Instagram is my highest besides direct promotion and sharing. Happy to cross promote with you.
That's awesome! I can see how your comics would do well on Instagram! I have yet to expand my reach into other social media beyond Twitter 😅
My twitter is whatever, but we do have a pod to hype up tweets and share. Follow @youtopianJ and I will follow back and add you.
Cross promote? Sounds interesting. Tell me more pls
Mutual shout outs in our respective newsletters to help each other get new eyeballs and subscribers.
Let's give it a try.
Yeah dang that's killer growth. Love to hear your strat
Wow! That's awesome growth in 3 weeks. What worked best for you?
Thank you! I've primarily grown from Twitter traffic - getting consistent growth over time by regularly posting + getting an uptick last Sunday when a big FinTwit account interacted with my work/subscribed
I can't get in to the meeting
the meeting is taking place on these threads - not a video - i also had the same problem
thanks
ok when are you having hours for building the publication and going paid
Hey Jay! We normally have open Office Hours sessions on Thursdays, but this week we asked our lawyers to come in to help answer those questions more specifically. Stay tuned for the next Office Hours session, or you can peruse our resources posts now if you want to dig into strategy: https://on.substack.com/s/resources
Thanks
True story, I actually plan my Thursdays around your office hours since it's such a great way to share information and knowledge. Today I forgot they were in the afternoon and had to reschedule a hair cut last minute to make it XD
Thank you for the positive feedback, we're glad you're finding office hours useful!
they really are speedy and on point with their responses!
If we post something and do run into potential legal trouble, what is the protocol for asking for assistance from the legal team if it is appropriate?
Hi Dr. Ben,
There is an application process for Substack Defender. Here is the application: https://bit.ly/substack-defender
Applications are open to US-based writers who have enabled paid subscriptions and publish work that may attract unreasonable legal pressure, such as abuses of copyright laws, assaults on first amendment rights, and spurious defamation claims. Upon acceptance to the program, writers can use a separate form to request help for specific cases.
Substack will make the ultimate choice on who is accepted into the program and which cases to support.
Thanks, exactly what i was looking for
how do i take what i've written off of substack?
very helpful - i just got shy hearing about how people steal - thanks!
Not a legal question, but you force people to charge at least $30/yr or $5/mo. Others do not have this, making me inclined to use one of those. Any plans to allow us to charge whatever we want since we are not 4?
I'd suggest that a $12 / yr would be appropriate, or even a rate of $6 / quarter. It appears someone took the base of $5, decided that the minimum transaction fees would be too high of a %% for smaller charges. But then, they just offered an annual price, based on that $5 / month. Granted, charging fees on a $1-2 buy consumes most of the costs. But, if $1-2 / month is what some readers/writers want, eliminate the monthly, and then just offer an annual, semi-annual, or even a quarterly @ $6 / month. -- Just my 2 cent opinions, of course...
1) Do you have any links to anti-SLAPP motions you've filed successfully in California state courts? 2) Have you been able to transfer defamation and other anti-speech cases to federal court? If so, other than diversity jurisdiction, how? 3) given CA's anti-SLAPP law, which venue do you believe is most favorable to the CA writer?
Not a legal question, but could the substack team take a look at adding an edit function when adding links to the main page? Am I missing something? It seems I can only delete and make new links, not edit them.
Do you mean in the sidebar (Recommended Links)? If so, I second that request.
yes this is what I mean. I used the feature for the first time today on my outdoor substack, to add some fast links to educational guides I'm writing. Going back and making tweaks to make it all look pretty is exhaustive
Hi Ben, is there any way to get updates on previous feature requests, or what features are currently being worked on? Some examples: Adding the "sections" navigation bar links to the top of the archive page. Allowing the thumbnail images displayed on the front page to be higher resolution if the post's main image is small, etc.
Thank you so much. Love the look of links by the way -- it's such a cool idea and it's perfect for creating the kind of publication I want. This option would just make it easier to do tweaks!
Appreciate all the hard work the team does.
same experience here - i think it's just this thread - not a video
these are just comment threads. Substack staff are perusing to answer your questions! They're actually super responsive.
Thanks Cole - and good to see you again!
Glad to be here!
the link keeps taking me to this page it is circular
What does that mean? Can you share more?
What is the easiest way to transfer content from Blogger to Substack en masse?
This goes to a private page.
Is this a live event? Where's the link to join...?
Hey there! We are live in this thread. Feel free to type your answers in here, and the Substack team, and your fellow writers, will answer as best as we can!
I had a blog that I did not renew and was thus sold off to someone who then posted my articles as if it was his. A few friends from the US told me that I should take action against him. I did nothing of that sort as all I had wanted was for my articles to be read by as many as possible.
As far as I am concerned whatever I write is for public consumption and they may do what they like with it.
My sole aim in writing what I have discovered over the years by teaching dyslexic kids is to educate the public. The more readers who share it or copy it and use it as their own the better.
This is a peculiar situation and I wonder if there isn't something rather easy for you to do to stop someone else from benefitting from your content. What platform was your blog on? If it was a site like WordPress.com or Blogger, that should never have happened. If you were self-hosting it and your domain lapsed, then as soon as you stopped paying for hosting, the site should have gone down.
Thank you very much for your response. My articles were on www.parentingdyslexia.com. I was glad that more readers were able to read what I had written.
I was able to copy-paste all my previous articles into my new blog at www.dyslexiafriend.com.
My former domain name having lapsed was put up for sale by GoDaddy. It was bought by someone else together with all the articles on my blog.
So I'm confused. Your website exists in two parts - the domain and the hosting. If your domain lapsed, then yes, someone else could buy it and use it. But your hosting is separate. If you stopped paying for it, the site should have just gone down. If you are still paying for it, and it's still connected to a domain registered at GoDaddy, then it's possible your old site could still be available. When I go to that link, I don't see anything there, so it looks like maybe it's finally shut down?
Anyway, it's good that you were able to republish your old articles. Just make sure you have auto-renew turned on your new domain so this doesn't ever happen again! :)
Thank you once again, Jackie. Yes, I am still paying for my new blog domain. There was a short time when those who searched the old domain it was redirected to my new domain.
Yes, I am glad that I republished all my earlier posts.
I searched for my old domain on my blog and found many posts where I had mentioned my previous domain name. Here is one of them https://www.dyslexiafriend.com/2010/09/dyslexia-learning-disabilities.html
Thank you for your advice. I wish you well.
Question about parody vs satire. I can create film parodies of Harry Potter that are legally protected, but if I re-use clips from the movies to satirize racism or colonialism or other topics, am I protected?
Weirdly enough, U.S. law does tend to be a little bit less forgiving of satire than it is of parody. But either can be a legally protected "fair use" — or either could be infringing, depending on the details. The key thing is always to be safely within a copyright exception that applies to your jurisdiction. For considering questions about fair use, I recommend the best practices guides made by CMSI — https://cmsimpact.org/report-list/codes/.
Happy Thursday everyone!! In honor of today's topic, a fun movie involving the legal profession is "Legally Blonde" (2001) about Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon), a college student who enters Harvard Law School in an effort to win back her ex-boyfriend.
Life Lesson: Learn to see the potential in yourself and in others.
Movie Scene: https://moviewise.wordpress.com/2013/08/27/legally-blonde/
If anyone has any favorite movies they would like share, consider writing a "Guest Post" on moviewise 🍿: https://moviewise.substack.com/s/-guest-posts
Yeahhhhhhhhh
Hey there Movie Wise :)
Hello to the Substack attorneys and my fellow writers,
IMy question for the attorneys is about using photos. How do I know if they are "royalty free"? If they are NOT affiliated with a stock agency? I noticed that some Substack writers (Michael Moore), for one, uses photos and gives a photo credit, like: Getty Images, Steve Hall, for example. But it's certainly possible he paid a fee for the use of that photo. Unless I'm looking in the wrong places, it is pretty difficult to come up with a decent photo that clearly says it is free for anyone to use. What am I missing? And thanks!
Hi Joan, here are a few royalty-free stock photo libraries to check out:
Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/
Nappy: https://nappy.co/
ShotStash: https://shotstash.com/
Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/
Freepik: https://www.freepik.com/
Pixabay: https://pixabay.com/
I have used many of these and the photos are not what I want to use. I have also written the owners with no results.
Thanks very much, Rose!
Hi Joan! Yes - the general rule is that you should assume that images you find online will require permission to use (and potentially royalties).
If you get images from a stock image company, these images are "cleared" - you're paying for the rights to use the image. The comment below is good too: "Creative Commons" licensed images (available on Flickr and elsewhere) are images where permission is given by the creator to use freely without needing permission.
Thanks Tim!
I can guarantee you that someone like Michael Moore is paying for those images. Getty in particular is VERY aggressive about chasing down unlicensed images and they will pursue costly legal action if they find any.
You need to either pay for a license to use an image from Getty, the AP, etc. or use free photo sites like the ones listed below. If in doubt, don't use them. Life's too short to have a major corporation coming after your little newsletter for copyright infringement. (And they will.)
I have tried writing the owners, no luck. So what are we to do?
This might be helpful: https://www.namecheap.com/blog/avoid-copyright-violations/
All content created by someone in the US is protected by copyright law, meaning that the content creator (including you!) automatically possesses all rights to it unless they assign rights to someone else or explicitly assert Creative Commons or Copyleft or other similar releases from copyright. If you contact the copyright holder for permission, and don't receive a response, that means you have not been given rights to it and therefore you cannot legally use it.
I'm in a non-compatible time-zone so I cannot be here with you all. Can I use a copyrighted picture on a blog article I give out as free?
You cannot legally use a copyrighted image unless you have permission of the owner or have licensed the image from a stock image site. Even on a free blog where you're not making any money.
Thank you Jackie for your swift response. I've contacted the owner and we'll see. Just learning the ropes here
Thanks Jackie.
I take most of my own photos but in the past have used Unsplash. They have a specific license made plain on their site.
I use Unsplash and Pexels and other copyright-free/creative commons images, and always try to credit the source. These days there are a lot to choose from.
And thanks again, Jackie
I use Pixabay: "All content on Pixabay can be used for free for commercial and noncommercial use across print and digital, except in the cases mentioned in 'What is not allowed'." https://pixabay.com/service/license/
Thanks for the link!
You can search on Flickr for images that have a license allowing re-use, or that are public domain. Here's a page about the various Flickr licenses: https://www.flickrhelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/4404078674324-Change-Your-Photo-s-License-in-Flickr
Thank you!
Thanks to the Substack team for providing this venue. I'd like to hear from the legal team their view of having a paid substack as a sole proprietor or an LLC. I've had an LLC before and it was a lot of paperwork, deadlines, and filings. I'd really prefer not to go down that road again, if possible. Thanks for advice.
Hi Heather. So, this is a matter of tradeoffs - while the paperwork is more complex with being an LLC and you generally need to pay annual fees, the benefit of having a legal entity is the liability protection: if you ever encounter any legal issues, your personal assets face less risk if you have an LLC. On the other hand, sole proprietor businesses are easier to manage and don't have these annual costs, but there is also somewhat more risk if a legal issue were to arise.
Thanks, Tim. Guess it's just personal choice and risk aversion. Appreciate your thoughts.
I could use a legal defense because readers say my Substack is killing it! But in all seriousness, people are going to copy/steal/use your work. I already see it in my SEO results, it happens. What can we do?
Most platforms will have an area on-site where you can submit what's known as a DMCA copyright takedown (the Substack one is here: https://substack.com/dispute). If someone is violating your copyright - this is a good place to start: platforms are obligated to take down this content unless and until they receive a counter notice from the person that posted it.
But, it's worth being careful with these takedowns, as we note on our copyright dispute page, improper filing notices can expose you to legal liability.
I have long counseled people building websites or creating content to never put anything on the internet that you can't stand to see stolen. Because if it's good enough, someone will try. It's the nature of things. Even if you watermark images, put copyright notices on your posts or websites, use other tech tricks to keep people from copy/pasting or downloading it or whatever, there's always a way around it. The only real solution I can offer is to keep creating more, because no one can steal it all, and to realize that in most cases you will still be able to benefit (financially or otherwise) from your work - even if someone bootlegs your novel and republished it, or uses your artwork on their website or T shirts, you still own the rights and can keep moving forward with new content, while the others have to keep copying other people's.
So I guess my advice is, to just let things go and don't worry about it too much, because you can't stop it, and becoming too worried about IP theft will make you less inclined to create and share in the first place - and that's when you really lose.
I should say, 'counseled' in the context of assisting, not in the context of providing legal advice. I am not a lawyer! :D
Because I question the official narrative about the pandemic and the vaccines and cite official vaccine death count numbers from the CDC's VAERS site (nearly 15,000 deaths to date), I've been censorsed on google owned platforms like youtube and gmail for about 6 months now. Also, to a lesser extent on facebook. In other words, I not allowed to cite official facts put out by the government, nor can I make a comment or post a link to my substack on those platforms. In short, my Constitutional rights to free speech have been taken away. Do I have any legal recourse?
Great opportunities I never I intended to be a part of. I need to delete this part without losing my connection/subscription to Alex Berenson. Thank you so much. 😔
I guess a good question is: Are these lawyers going to take cases where, for example, if I had no access to funds, and possibly couldn't pay them back? I would fight the case, but It would be a hard thing to think about the responsibilities of having to pay a lawyer when a good lawyer is hard to find and keep. Also fighting the case as well, and thinking about all the possibilities of losing a case too.
If you're referring to Substack Defender, you can read more about it here - https://on.substack.com/p/legal-support-for-substack-writers. "For this first iteration of the program, applications are open to US-based writers who have enabled paid subscriptions and publish work that may attract unreasonable legal pressure, such as abuses of copyright laws, assaults on first amendment rights, and spurious defamation claims. Upon acceptance to the program, writers can use a separate form to request help for specific cases. Substack will make the ultimate choice on who is accepted into the program and which cases to support. Once a case has been taken on by the program’s lawyers, Substack, at our discretion, will cover fees up to $1 million (in exceptional cases, we may cover even more)."
Do you have any recommendations or guidelines around disclaimers for financial advice? I include one in my footnotes, but I’d really appreciate any feedback about handling this. (For context, I write an investing newsletter that analyzes companies.)
Got it -- thanks, Ari!
Not a legal question: I would like to publish a webinar series on S/S and charge for it. Will that fly in your terms of service?
It is not against our terms. Go for it, and good luck!
How does the legalities work outside the United States?
This would vary place to place. The US has what are probably the most robust free speech protections in the world. For instance: In the US, if someone wants to sue you for libel the burden of proof is on them. In the UK, you have to prove your own innocence in a lot of ways - that means someone with overpowered lawyers can often put the hurt on you where a US suit would quickly fail.
Every country is going to have these kinds of differences. Even Canada (America's hat!) is much less protective of speech; they come down much harder on what is/isn't hate speech, for instance. For you to know about your particular jurisdiction, you'd have to study that jurisdiction independently.
I was wondering what will happen if someone from some countrily other tha ln mine choose to do plagiarise my content. Does the standard general plagiarism norice to take down the content still works tge same way? Is it universal?
International treaties mean copyright protections are broadly similar most everywhere in the world. Cross-border enforcement can be difficult in formal channels like courts, but less formal avenues (like US DMCA takedown notices), are often broadly available regardless of jurisdiction. We have a little note about DMCA notices above.
readers say my substack is illegal, it instantly improved their lives. join the philosophical community.
Bringing the heat!
OK, so, if I'm writing an article, and I quote a tweet in it, and that tweet contains an image, AND it's the first image in the article, it will automatically set that image as the splash image for the article itself.
Let's say the image is not public domain: should I be worried about this?
Maybe a little bit! Best practice is to have a justification (for instance, under fair use) for any image you use. Folks *may* have slightly better legal protection when using embedded images, and that protection is lost where the image is used outside the embed context . . . so this situation is a little less than ideal, but if there's have an independent legal justification the splash image would only have a marginal effect on the legal exposure.
+1 to Jackie's recommendation! Here are some libraries of high-resolution and free-to-use stock images:
Unsplash
Nappy
Shot Stash
Pexels
Freepik
Pixbay
Thank you Bailey
I would recommend you make it a routine to add a copyright-free image (styled to fit your newsletter and with the right aspect ratio) as the first image in each Substack, which solves that problem AND makes your list of articles on your Substack page look a lot tidier.
I'm in a non-compatible time-zone so I cannot be here with you all. Can I use a copyrighted picture on a blog article I give out as free?
Exactly right. I missed that this was an image within a tweet. Sorry.
I'm not a lawyer but I can answer this one: Unless the image is your own you should always add an attribute. Always. But some images are protected and you need to know that, too. If you add an image without permission or an attribute you may be called on it at some point. Don't take that chance. Just do it the right way from the start.
There are plenty of free sources for images. Wikimedia is just one of them.
Greetings fellow Stackers, My query is not on legal matters but on advertising analytics. Can one attain a Google analytics pixel ID through one's site on Substack? What about Google tag manager. Thanks
Yes you can - you can find that via settings in "Advertising Analytics"
You can! there's a box for it in the "settings" page. It's never worked very well for me, though; this might be because I'm bad at GA. No on the tag manager, as far as I know
This isn’t a question about legal, but I was just wondering how ios 15 is expected to affect open rates on Substack?
I'm here also wondering about this question
Good question. A couple things to to note here: open rates are already not super-reliable and especially for writers (as opposed to companies trying to market products) we advise against putting too much weight on open rates. The more relevant metrics are things like audience growth over time. But the answer to your specific question is yes, there will definitely be some impact on measuring open rates.
Hi there Substack writers, a couple of weeks ago I asked the community about Reddit - some had earlier opined that it was a good place for finding one's readership. I jumped into the site and was immediately shut down, just for saying "hello" to the Writing subreddit. I promised to follow up with my subsequent experience.
Learnings:
1) one of you pointed me in the direction of a detailed onboarding document, written by Reddit, about how to behave in their world; this was super helpful and I have been guided by it ever since
2) Reddit is one odd place on the internet, a mix of kind / helpful souls, confused souls, and trolls; navigating through these is an art-form, to say the least; I started with a handful of subreddits, just looking and commenting helpful words here and there; eventually I landed on a small set of subreddits that make sense for my topics of interest
3) next came the karma effort; karma is their virtual currency that allows you to contribute content without being shutdown; very different from Twitter; following the example of Substack's First1000 author, I dedicated time every day for a couple of weeks, gently adding helpful advice to redditors asking various questions; soon I reached the magic 100 karma points
4) and so, this week, I published the September edition of The Strategy Toolkit (on strategy & biology); via Substack, I was able to post to the strategy subreddit; the next day, I followed up with a post to the biology subreddit
Overall, a time intensive effort but successful in terms of outbound. I will let you know if I gain any subscribers as a result.
I can't join live later today, unfortunately.
George
I would agree with David C. Benson. Each Subreddit is different. I've been on Reddit over 10 years but knowing how things can go, I was reluctant to share one of my recent Substack articles on Reddit. I was talked through it and did so, sharing an article I wrote about an old local bridge to a local subreddit, and not only was it well-received with a bunch of upvotes, but a couple of people encouraged me to share more in the future AND gave me a few tips for additional sources to find more historical info in the future.
What I learned is that if you approach Reddit as a place to sincerely share in the spirit of whichever subreddit you're in, and what you're sharing fits with what others are doing (and you follow the subreddit's rules), you can definitely make it happen. But what is 100% legit and desired in one subreddit might get you banned in another, so you have to really pay attention to what you're doing.
I'll add that Reddit experiences vary wildly, mostly according to what the mod of any given subreddit thinks about Original Content [OC] writing. In some subreddits, the entire purpose is for people to post their [OC]. Those subreddits tend to be more "graphic art" oriented, but with some writing interspersed. Other subreddits act like they are allergic to OC, and are very hostile to it. Sometimes they will even de facto block Substack, Medium etc. on the assumption the poster is posting their own work, which some mods consider "spamming."
The difference seems to be between mods who see Reddit as a forum for discussion, a platform for signaling, or a "smart news aggregator." If someone sees the purpose of Reddit is "I have an idea, let's talk about it" then they're happy to welcome an author sharing and interacting with community members, especially since a blog or substack can have features Reddit cannot. If the purpose is to signal what you like or dislike, or to make essentially a community-curated RSS feed, then putting your own stuff in feels like cheating, since no one really cares what you think in either case. The only way to get a sense of which subreddit is which type, is to be on the board for some time, and see what gets voted up or down, and how meaningful the commentary is.
The subreddits you want as a writer are the subreddits where the readers clearly read the articles, and then discuss the writing therein. Those are the only subreddits where you can know people are actually going to click through and read what you wrote. If most of the comments are based on the title only, or mostly have emotional responses, posting to that subreddit is a waste of time. Almost no one is clicking through the link to read your article, far fewer are going to subscribe, and if anyone does subscribe they will unsubscribe as soon as you say something that disagrees with them, or after enough time passes and you don't give them the ammunition they want in whatever battle they think they are fighting.
Very helpful, David, thank you. I am a Reddit n00b, learning slowly and patiently. So far I've found little spaces that appear to be a fit, but it is early days.
Great insight George. Thanks much for sharing. Reddit is a platform which has major anti-promotions / systematic posting guidelines in certain communities. So it is useful to know them before jumping into it
helpful...thank you!
Are there any legal complications entailed if doing consulting relating to your Substack? For example, if someone wanted to hire me to consult on a problem, is there a process that I need to follow with Substack to stay right with the law? I'm assuming that thinks like NDA's with the customer would be worked out between them, and that normal ethical "disclose conflicts of interest" apply. What I'm asking is what does consulting affect about my relationship with Substack, or with my copyright.
You own all of your own content on Substack, which is really just your newsletter/blog. So I can't see why it would be an issue. Plus I know a number of people who use Substack as a way to build their business, so it seems like it would be fine. What I wouldn't do is turn your Substack into your primary sales platform - instead, I'd suggest having a separate website/landing page, and weave your Substack into that.
Yes, agreed with Jackie. You own all of your content!
Hi Substack Team!
I use Genius Links for Amazon affiliate links in my newsletter. Somewhere I read that Substack automatically deletes the affiliate ID. I want tot check whether this works for Genius Links as well?
Does anyone else use Amazon affiliate links?
Thanks!
Rishi
Thanks for posting this! Very disappointing that Substack automatically removes Amazon affiliate links in the emailed newsletters, and does not send a warning or message saying so. Is there a reason for this? Will this change in the future? This certainly interferes with some people's livelihoods/ business models, etc. Affiliate links support many writers.
So perhaps to answer my own question, it is because Amazon will not accept affiliate links coming from emails.
"We do automatically strip Amazon affiliate links from the email versions of your posts, because they don't allow affiliate links that are shared by email."
https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037455072-Can-I-use-affiliate-links-or-advertising-in-my-emails-
Wow, had no idea that was happening. The solution might be to link only to your affiliate storefront splash page, and not to specific items. Will Substack strip out a link like this one? https://www.amazon.com/shop/esotouricbusadventures
How does one get a storefront splash page?
You apply for the Amazon "influencer" program. Here's the link: https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/influencers
Thank you! There are so many programs everywhere 🧐
James, could you elaborate more on the requirements to post an address to appear at the bottom of newsletters. From the "settings" page: "Business address to show at the bottom of all emails." If we use Stripe for payments, does this mean that the newsletters will include our home address to subscribers? Currently, the default shows up as: 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104.
I write TV show reviews, and I use screenshots to illustrate my points. I believe using screen shots from the TV shows falls under Fair Use, but is there any specific labeling I need to do? Right now I have an email footer that says 'all images are property of their respective owners', but do I need to get more specific?
Fair use doesn't have any labeling requirements. Courts will look askance at uses that aren't properly attributed (think in a plagiarism-y way), but reviews are generally not going to confuse anyone about who the show was made by / belongs to!
Does Stripe on S/S operate like Medium, where you need to form an entity, along with a physical address in order to charge money?
This may be a good interview to take a look at if you want to know more: https://on.substack.com/p/how-to-think-like-a-business-patrick-mckenzie
No, I write and use Stripe as an individual.
Hi George. So no LLC? I've been wondering about what to do. I've had an LLC in the past and it required a lot of paperwork. But I am concerned about the liability as an individual. Would like to hear from legal on the pros and cons.
No LLC at this time, not big enough to warrant the cost and administrative burden. My content doesn't raise liability flags.
Are writers on Substack required to list their home addresses at the bottom of the emailed newsletters if they use Stripe?
Thank you!
This topic couldn't have come at a better time! Here's my question:
I'm acquainted with a professional photographer who doesn't want her photos copied and used by random people. She has given me permission to use certain photos of hers, but with attribution. My concern is that people reading my blog can click to save the photo and use it anyway, despite the copyright. Therefore, I created a watermark on the photo to make it less useable to others.
As an example, the fourth photo down on my latest post shows this watermark:
https://createsoulspace.substack.com/p/psychological-physical-violence
Is this adequate protection to help deter people who may potentially steal the photo? Again, the photographer has only required that mention the photo is hers, yet I want to go a step beyond in an effort to protect her art and livelihood. Thank you!
I see that writers must apply to the Substack Defender program, which I'm guessing means limited resources and triage. Is there any sort of insurance available through Substack it elsewhere, particularly in the case of nuisance suits? My student newspaper was occasionally threatened with legal action back in the day, but we either ignored it or wrote a retraction, depending. This was many years ago. Are there any new concerns we need to be aware of? Any specific instances of Substackers being sued or harassed?
OK ma'am
This is a sound plan.
Hi everyone! Sharing some insight on how I grew my subscribers this week - some free ways and some paid.
www.oddjobsnews.com/welcome
I started Odd Jobs Newsletter in July and was able to grow it to over 1,000 subscribers by putting in 2-3 hours of work a week.
Here's what worked really well.
1. Giveaways
I did 3 giveaways and was able to get a huge increase of subscribers. I gave away t-shirts and books (so it didn't cost me very much) and incentivized people to share the newsletter as a way of gaining extra entires to the giveaway.
2. Google Ads
I had never tried Google ads before but this worked so well. I had a budget of $10 a day and researched keywords that my audience would be searching for that applied to the newsletter. I was able to get over 300 subscribers in a week doing this with a low ad budget.
3. Shareable Content
Every week, I make sure my newsletters are valuable, interesting, and unique so readers feel inclined to share with their friends. Plus, it's free so people want to pass along the good info. with the people they adore.v
Thank you for your Google Ads idea. This might have legs!
These are so helpful- thanks for sharing! How do you do a giveaway? I mean, how do you promote it but then also how do you pick the winner? I'd like to try this and the ads idea. Thanks!
I used a free website - kingsumo - to set up the giveaway!
Thanks for sharing Jen! Of the three you shared, was one the most impactful?
Google ads really helped boost!
I did get a great boost for Google ads with a small test, will try it further.
Did you get any halfway decent analytics from your google ads? mine seemed unable to detect whether I was actually getting people to click the ads
It looks like a 10 percent sign up rate which is pretty dope
Thanks for this, Jen. Have you ever tried Facebook ads for the same purpose?
Yes! Didn't work as well for my audience but am now trying Linkedin ads
Ah! I'd be curious to know how well those work. I haven't tried any of these yet - I am still very much in the newsletter planning stage, so appreciate these insights greatly.
I hired someone on Fiverr to help with the setup and it worked pretty well for the small $10/day budget. I had to figure out the right keywords and target audience.
Do you have someone you'd recommend? You did all the hard leg work !
Fiverr is a great idea! I will explore that further. Thank you!
I don't! I picked someone on Fiverr who was okay and then optimized the ad myself. Would not rec that person though!
Thanks, Jen, helpful. You're the first to comment favourably on Google Ads. Will think about it vs other ad spend options.
Yes! Didn't work as well for my audience but am now trying Linkedin ads