Welcome everyone! Thank you
for joining us today. I'm here with Franklin Jara.
Thank you so much for having me.
Today we are going to be getting all
kinds of legal advice from Franklin.
But first let me introduce
myself. I am the
Founder of The Blogger Union. The
Blogger Union, for those of you who
haven't heard of it before, it's a
network of blogger communities
dedicated to growing our members brands and incomes through meetups, workshops,
brand collaborations, and now webinars.
Like this one. We have bloggers
communities all over the US.
I run the one in Miami called the South
Florida Bloggers, but you'll also find
the New York City Bloggers the
DC Bloggers, the Houston bloggers,
Minneapolis bloggers, Orlando bloggers,
et.c If you'd like to become an
official member, I welcome you to check
out thebloggerunion.com. And if you'd
like to follow my personal blog you can
follow @coralgableslove on Instagram.
Let me introduce you to Franklin.
Franklin, is a Florida Attorney
and he has experience working with
influencers to review contracts and he
also has experience in family law and
litigation. I'm gonna let Franklin
talk a little bit more about himself.
High Paola,
thank you so much for having me here to
speak to your group. I know everybody's
stuck at home right now so this is a
nice reprieve, a nice opportunity for
people to connect and get involved. As
you mentioned, I am a Florida Attorney.
All advice that I will be given today
will be limited to Florida. You can ask
me any questions that you may have if
you're outside the state of Florida.
I will answer them as best as I can, but
my advice will be limited today to
Florida. I have over 15
years experience. I do contract reviews,
commercial litigation, I do family law,
and employment litigation. so I know
probably this law
is mainly about your content creation
and those rights. But today, if you have
any questions regarding I know this
situation with COVID going on if you
have questions regarding your employment
or any family issues,
questions about wills or of any nature just
ask me the question and I'll answer the
best I can. If I can't, I'll try to
point in the right direction.
You can always text me or follow me
on Instagram or Facebook.
All right, so let's get started. Now that
you guys know
Franklin's name by now, we can just look
at our faces.
So I have here a few questions
that our members have asked about legal
advice that we've had over the years
at our meetups. I'm gonna start
with those but if you have any questions
whether it's about like your landlord is
asking you to pay rent and you can't pay
rent and what to do you do legally or
anything if it's blog related or
business-related or anything. Franklin is
well rounded attorney so he'll try to
give you the best advice on any of those
topics. So feel free to put your
questions in the chat and
I'll keep an eye on the chat so we can
include those as well. But let's get
started. We recently have seen all the
websites change to add a little pop-up
window asking you if you accept their
cookie policy on their website. Now our
members have been asking if this is
something that we need to put on all of
our blogs, on our websites. Well it will
be recommended to put on your blogs.
Especially if you're gonna reach out
beyond your jurisdiction, beyond Florida,
beyond the United States. A lot of these
concerns have to do with different
jurisdictions have different privacy
policy issues. So it really becomes one
of these questions that what's the
privacy policy in North Carolina,
Washington DC, Europe, or whatever the
case may be. It's recommended if you're
gonna reach out to a wide community
which, I'm assuming a lot of you who are
trying to reach out to. I recommend
that you have a privacy policy stating
what information you protect,
what's available, what's given to third
parties because I know a lot of times
bloggers advertise and they have third
parties who - oh you know - want to get lists and information. So it's important to
protect yourself if you're going to
reach out to a wide base. Okay great
because the whole cookie pop-up windows
started when the privacy laws changed in
Europe but all of the websites here in
the US also did it because they might
have customers in Europe buying products.
Well a lot of times that the
wonderful thing about the Internet is
that it reaches anywhere and everywhere.
So basically you are available anywhere
and everywhere and your website would be
visible anywhere and everywhere. The
question is what products are you
selling, what services, what's being given
out with the information. So depending on
what information is being traded or
provided you're definitely gonna have to
provide privacy policy. Okay
great. So if you don't have a privacy
policy now it's a good time to start
working on them. Okay so let me look.
Edward is asking if there's a good
privacy policy template available
or someplace we can find one that you
recommend. Well here's the thing is tough
for me to recommend. I don't know where
Edward is. I would advise that he. I think he's from Ft. Lauderdale.
If you like what you can do is what I'm
gonna put up my email in the chat earlier.
Whoever wants one they can just
email me and I'll send the privacy
policy template, you know, one that
you can fill in. I'll just provide that
to you guys. So shoot me
your email and I'll see what I can do for you
guys.
Thank You Franklin that's a great thing
resource. Okay, wonderful!
Now, moving on to the
business of blogging and brand
collaborations. Whenever there is a
brand collaboration there is some sort
of contract. Whether it's just a minimal
email having the specifics laid out or
like a 10 page contract with like all
kinds of stuff in there. Can you tell us
some things that we should look out for
in any contract?
I know it's obviously that's a pretty
broad question but I can definitely give
you some ideas. Especially you know given
your example a one-page email. 
There's certain things that you really
want to look out for as opposed to a 10
page contract which, may have a bunch of
hidden whoo loopholes and other
questions like that. Definitely one
of the most important terms in any
contract is to make sure that you're
each getting what you bargained for.
Am I expecting what I'm supposed to get
and are am I providing what they're
expecting they want to get. So it's
important to understand the terms. So in
this case am I gonna get paid. What am I
gonna get paid? How is that gonna happen?
You know I'm assuming that's what
everyone here really cares about. So it's
important to know what are the terms. How
do I meet those terms? Do we both
understand the terms clearly that we're
each gonna provide? This is very
important. The other
important issue to see is what happens
if one of us doesn't do what we're
supposed to do? I think that's
really what everybody's looking for
here. Because if everything goes great, you
know, there's no problem. Big thing in
these contracts is what happens in the
event of a breach. Do I give up my rights?
Do I lose money? How much money? So it's
important to see what the terms are. What
you're each getting and what happens in
the event things go south. How'd you get
out of this contract? How to get out of
this agreement? Are there penalties,
attorneys fees, etc.? You know aside
from that, if anyone has questions then
obviously having an attorney
review any complicated contract.
Especially if it's gonna be 10 pages.
It's gonna be a lot more to look at than
just you know who's getting paid.
Then another important thing to see is
- because I'm assuming a lot of you, from what I understand, deal with third parties
that are outside the state of Florida
and other corporations outside your
jurisdiction. It's important to see
where does any action take place if
something goes south. So do you have to
go to court in North Carolina or do you
have to go to court in Florida? These are
things to look at because if you have to
go to court in North Carolina, and you're in
Florida, you could be at a major
disadvantage. So these are the little
things to look at. Okay that's great
advice. Well, obviously have an attorney
look at your contract because every case
is different and everything you know
everything can change at any time. Right,
but I love this because even though we're gonna go look for an
attorney to go look over our contracts,
at least we are a little bit more
educated about what we're
looking out. Okay we have
a question from Nikki and she says, "I
signed a non-disclosure agreement as a
brand ambassador for a company. During
the process the organization did not
fulfill their part." I guess
of the agreement, but she did. Now as
an influencer, can she back out without
legal issues? I'm gonna guess it depends
what the contract says.
It's always it depends.
That's the beauty about being an
attorney, we always say, "It depends."
But let me see if I understand the
question correctly. She signed an NDA
promising not to disclose whatever it
may be that she couldn't disclose.
During the process, the organization did not execute their part. I mean I'm assuming
they breached some sort of provision in
the NDA.
I think this is
a very specific case and I think Nikki
you might be better off just emailing
Franklin and you guys taking it offline.
But in general to answer in
general.
Typically, it's not easy to back out
of a signed agreement if you both have
signed it. There's usually methods to
enforce the agreement. I don't know what
the breach in this case may be but
depending on the breach there are spaces to
terminate. Maybe you can. Maybe this is a
provision that can be breached, but the
rest of the agreement survives. If she'd like, I'd be more than happy to
talk to her after this if she wants to
give me a call or send me an email. I'd be
happy to discuss her case further and
see how we can help her. But definitely
it's not as easy once you sign the
contract to just say, "oh well, you didn't do
your part. I'm not gonna do my part."
That's not really good advice. What I
would suggest is take it to an attorney.
Have them explain your rights. See what
can be done because it's not just as
easy as throwing your hands up and
saying I hope nothing happens. There may
be repercussions. Yes okay, that's
great advice. Now moving
on to who owns what. There's another
question. Jean says, "Choice of law arbitration clauses." Was that a question?
I think she's just saying those are
good things to look out for because you
mentioned - oh right, where you're getting
sued. She's right. Yes, oh okay okay.
So okay
owning our artwork. So a question that we
get a lot during our meetups is, "When you
hire a photographer to take pictures of
you for the blog. Who owns those
photographs?" It depends on the
relationship you established with the
photographer. Okay there are occasions
where you can hire a photographer
work-for-hire. Think of it as
a quinceañera, a wedding. Where
they take pictures, you pay them the
money. You own the pictures. You can
post them on Facebook and put them on
social media.
You could advertise with them. They're
your pictures. That's your content now. If
you're just hiring a photographer to use
their images that they take for you then
they may
own the content. So you really have to sit
down and have an understanding
with your photographer. To see what the
relationship is and who's going to
maintain ownership of it. Usually if
they're gonna sell their images it's
gonna cost more than just
lending them to you, licensing them to
you. So I would definitely suggest that
you have a conversation with whoever you use
as a photographer; and either have a
clear understanding verbally or you know
as always put it down in writing. So you
understand who owns the
photography. Now it doesn't have to be a
complicated agreement. It could be as
simple as a receipt saying we
took these many pictures and I got paid
cash or whatever the case may be and
they're the owners so it's you know just
make sure you have an understanding as
to who's gonna own the material okay
that's great
so something to keep in mind because
it's something that we don't necessarily
do always is have a little licensing
agreement with your photographer or
whatever saying that you own the photos
or that's a photographer owns the photos
or whichever it is that you're looking
for okay
now continuing with photos what if a
brand uses your photograph without your
permission
well you can you can usually what
happens is you'll send the cease and
desist letter and tell them that you
have the ownership of the picture or the
material that you're asking them to stop
using they're probably gonna come back
and want to establish some sort of proof
that you actually own the content or the
material whatever the case may be but in
the event that in to answer your
question the way you asked it you're
they're literally using your your photo
you have the right to sue them to have
them stopped I like damages for the or
whatever amount of money you've lost by
their use of your for your property okay
now the business side if it's a brand
that you want to work with and very took
your photo then it might not be the best
advice to sue them
for damages for the photo but if they
are being unresponsive and they kept
using your photographs and all over
their website and their advertising then
that's something to know that you do own
your photographs okay
can you please explain the difference
between copyright and trademark
trademark basically relates to a brand
so coca-cola they trademark coca-cola
blogger Union the trademark would be
blogger Union a copyright typically
deals with the work of art like you know
if you write a book you get a copyright
on the book you copyright a song
copyright a work of art photography a
logo you can copyright yeah Fatah a
photograph could be you know any image
any design basically sound music art to
be popular okay perfect so Dean has a
good question so how how do you
copyright your your stuff sure yeah all
the blog posts that you write your
videos your photography how do you
establish ownership of the content I'm
mixing basically it's the common law
states of its first use whoever used at
first you basically created the
copyright but if you want to go further
you can always have a register with the
patents and trades office okay
all rightie patents and trademarks
office okay so I'd want to look it up as
the USPTO okay um but they only do
trademarks right they don't do copyright
I don't believe like I think they just
do patents and trademarks so I don't
think they do copyrights so copyrights
would be a different type of situation
okay all right let's see okay talking
about collections okay we've had
members who do a partnership with some
business and they do their work they
deliver and then the business does not
pay the invoice or whatever amount they
agreed to um what do you recommend
someone do in that case you know that's
that's a that's obviously I would
recommend that they go collect the money
that they rode that would be the answer
that everybody wants to hear
now obviously financially that sometimes
that's a limitation for people depending
on what's what's what's at stake but
what you can do is definitely you can
send out demand letters demanding that
they pay you and ultimately if they do
not want to pay you have the right to
take a look or to sue them for the money
order okay now here's I have something I
would like to ask it because I know that
a lot of people in influencers will
threaten with an attorney looks like
before actually calling an attorney how
do you feel about that you know they
tell the round like okay you pay me or
I'm gonna have to get my attorney
involved is that something that you
recommend people do or not I mean I
there's nothing wrong with telling
someone that you're gonna enforce your
legal rights by hiring an attorney I
don't think there's anything wrong with
that the only thing I would say is that
you know don't make it an idle threat
you may have to follow through once you
fold the attorney card so it's nothing
wrong with saying that it's I recommend
my client say that all the time
initially SiC listen if we don't get
this resolved then when I have to get my
attorney involved the question really is
what happens after that
because at that point the other party
may say okay then talk to my attorney
and now you're gonna either have to get
her an attorney you're gonna have to do
without attorneys around all right so
there's nothing wrong with it just be
aware of what how you're gonna follow
through with it okay yes okay great so
if someone still didn't paint and they
were to call you because this person
isn't paying me what do you think would
be the first step
the first step would probably be
descended the man letter stating that
money is owed and that you're giving
them X amount of days to pay or you're
gonna have to sue them so typically the
first step is to send like a letter
notifying them that unless they resolve
the breach that they're gonna be sued
okay and usually the demand letter comes
from an attorney because that's you know
when you make that threat you have
already custom to following through with
that and the same applies here at the
demand later stage right because it's
another threat it was like well a lot of
times we'll have sometimes what ends up
happening and I'm not gonna say this
happens every single time because if
it's not true but a lot of times what
could happen is once they get the letter
from an attorney then they see oh wait a
minute this this this may cost me more
to defend than it would be to pay up and
maybe the demand letter would do it a
lot of times a cease and desist letter
will do it a lot of times these
situations can be resolved with a demand
that I'm not saying it works 100% of the
time but a lot of times this computer
solves a simple letter yes okay okay
okay
now let's talk about partnerships
because some of our members like to
maybe start projects together maybe
start a YouTube channel together or a
blog together or some type of business
so what do you recommend
they do that in terms of structuring
that partnership that's another in-depth
question I would what I would say about
forming a partnership with anybody
whether it's your best friend your
family member or chinking strangers have
a very good understanding of the roles
of the partners and what happens in the
event of a winding down what is the
payment structure what is the profit
sharing structure have a real
understanding sitting down because a lot
of times and you know this is people get
excited and they only see positive
things which is great this is why
they're successful but sometimes things
follow
and then people rush into agreements and
then they don't understand what their
role is what am I supposed to do what
was she supposed to do I thought we were
each getting 5050 I didn't order this
expense so sitting down having a good
partnership agreement so I'm gonna draft
something where both parties all the
parties doesn't have to be to understand
what their rights and responsibilities
are to the corporation to the
partnership is essential to having a
successful successful partnership
business of any kind okay awesome all
righty so we have just a few minutes
left so I would like to switch a little
bit into like legal issues with the
going crisis that's going on if you guys
have any other questions regarding to
blogging or content creation or anything
like that you can put in the chat and if
we have time we'll switch over again you
can always email me directly I'm going
to put up my email address again just in
case okay perfect so all right so we've
been seeing a lot of people starting to
put together their wills with the
current crisis and I came to realize
that there's such a thing as a will and
a living will can you please explain the
difference okay sure it is a term that
gets confused a lot a lot of people
think misconstrue the terms one for the
other a will basically is a statement a
document of your desires of what's gonna
happen to your personal property your
content your house your China the money
in your bank accounts your jewelry a
living will on the other hand is more of
a has been living will is more of a
directive to your medical doctors
medical facilities and staff saying what
do you want to see happen in the event
of certain medical conditions conditions
happening so do you want them to feed
your deficiency do you want them to
provide oxygen keep your heart going so
you can really get into a very deep
understanding as what levels of care and
commitment
you want so along those lines there's
another document called
do-not-resuscitate that we hear a lot
about and that's usually the difference
between that unliving will that's
basically what happens
you tell medical facilities final rites
what happens in my heart stops what
happens if I stop breathing and
basically what you're saying is
authorizing them not to continue life
life rescuing measures and letting you
pass away so I don't know it just did
that or not yes yeah kind of find it
thank you so much okay
Oh quick question so what if you cannot
afford to keep paying your rent or
mortgage what is going on with the
current situation well that's that's
another tough one
technically you're still supposed to be
paying your rent there's nothing in the
law that prevents you from not having to
pay your landlord or meeting your
mortgage obligations what's happening
here in Dade County and another
jurisdiction in the state of Florida is
that there's a moratorium on eviction so
what does that mean that means if you
stop paying your rent today and you get
evicted the sheriff it's not going to
come out and remove you until the state
of emergency passes and Dave County in
Broward County I know house one also so
you'll be safe in your home for a while
but once the the moratorium is lifted
everything's gonna roll back in real
quick so you may get removed fairly
quickly once the emergency happens but
for the time being I suggest that you
contact your landlord a lot of landlords
are working with their tenants see what
they can do also contact your mortgage
companies and see you qualify for a
forbearance it's important to note
though that the mortgage companies are
only giving out forbearances it's not a
forgiveness of your of your mortgage
payments you will have to pay that
completely at the end of the forbearance
period now there's different forbearance
periods that different banks are
applying three one six months but
whichever one you qualify for at the end
of the six months period you will have
to pay the entire amount in full a lot
of banks are with what I understand if
you're unable to pay after the
forbearance
you would have to apply for a
modification and go through that process
to do your banking institution so
there's no real easy answer no okay all
right Thank You Franklin
okay I think we have time for one more
question and Alana wants to talk about
FCC regulations regarding disclosure of
advertising with influencers so she says
can you please discuss how a blogger
should use the hashtag ad versus hosted
and versus sponsored I'm gonna be honest
with you at this moment I I'm not really
sure the distinctions between hashtag ad
and hosted and sponsored these are
things that have come up recently and I
know that there are requirements to
differentiate between this being a paid
advertisement so I wish what I can do is
I can have have Alana email me directly
and I will do a little bit more research
for her and give her a better answer
unfortunate this time my money Buddha
okay
Thank You Franklin actually the FTC
released a guide for influencers so I
put the link in the chat and you can
take a look-see and it has different
scenarios so like if you're in a video
you have to sit at the beginning and
when people and that's not enough
because people can join you throughout
the video and not and miss your first
announcement so you have to repeatedly
throughout the video tell them that this
is a sponsored video if you're doing it
but take a look at that link and if you
have any further questions um I'm sure
you can email Franklin and he can
clarify all the differences with the
hashtags I think we have just one minute
left
so Franklin if you can please put your
email one last time in the box in case
anybody missed it you can grab
Franklin's email from the chat and thank
you everyone so much for joining us let
me know if you guys need
privacy policy not be happy to point out
to you guys okay awesome thank you so
much Franklin thank you so much for
taking the time thank you for having me
Paul all right thank you everybody and
we'll see you at the next one we have
our next webinar coming up this Thursday
and it's about how to incorporate your
blog into a business so that you can
file taxes as a business you can work
with brands as a business and not as a
person it looks a little more
professional so take a look the South
Florida bloggers Instagram Lincoln bio
and you'll see the link for the webinar
thanks so much for joining us and we'll
see you guys on Thursday have a
wonderful week
