Do I Need a Written Contract when Publishing Material Contributed by Others

[KopyLeft]

Hi!

I'm starting a website and in addition to my own material, I'll publish articles contributed by people I know. However, I'd like to do everything "by the book", so I was wondering how I properly can do the licensing.

1. First of all, do I have to get a written permission, (on physical paper with a signature), or is everything okay as long as they send me the article over email with permission to publish it. Do I need to make a contract, (there is no money involved), or is everything okay as long as they send me stuff knowing that I'll put it online? (Among other things I'll be hosting a daily blog, so there'll much paperwork if I need to have written permission for every single piece.)


2. Obviously I need to have permission to host the material, but on the other hand I'd like to give them the opportunity to use their articles in other settings if they'd like. (As a matter of fact, I don't really have to "own" the material myself as long as I have permission to use the material... )

Is it possible to have a dual copyright over the material? (c) My-example-site.com / Friend McFriendson


3. Any obvious issues that I haven't mentioned, which I need to pay attention to when posting stuff contributed by other people?


- Thanks in advance!

[Mr. Knowitall]

If they are conveying copyright to you, that should be done in the form of a signed writing. It may be possible to accomplish that by electronic signature.

If they grant you only a non-exclusive license to publish their work, you don't hold copyright over their work but may be able to claim copyright over the presentation of that work on your site.

You will want to monitor for plagiarism and should consider taking full advantage of the safe harbor provisions of the DMCA.

[KopyLeft]

Thanks for you feedback!

How would you go about obtaining an "electronic signature" that would be legally binding? Obviously when you join a site, you are supposed to agree with a TOS, and I guess such agreements are binding. Yet, my site won't be of the character where users submit and edit their own stuff... We communicate via email, and I'm sort of the publisher / editor.

Have you got examples of valid electronic signatures?