“Drafting” language in contract

[Bill Davis]

Any non-lawyer trying to write their own “slick legalease” is a VERY dumb idea.

The whole point of legal language is to be precise and address the possible legal aspects of a situation in advance so that all parties understand what’s being agreed to. As such, these agreements are SPECIFIC to the circumstances you expect in your work and need to be drafted with an understanding of the ACTUAL laws in force where the agreement is likely to be used.

Grabbing language from other documents and pasting them into YOUR contract is a little like grabbing a series of scenes from other movies and pasting them together to make your own movie.

Mash ups are fun, but NOBODY expects the same quality result from a mash-up that you’d achieve from writing purposely created to tell your own unique story.

You can probably get an IP lawyer to do a basic document like this for a few hundred bucks – after he or she LISTENES to what YOU, the client actually wants and needs.

If you don’t want to spend the money -that’s your call. But if it turns out that your cobbled together “agreement” fails to protect you later on, you know who to blame.

Good luck.

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Conner

[Richard Herd]

First you need to define terms.
Edits v. Roughs v. Assembles v. Revisions and Approvals

not a lawyer: Client agrees that contractor will make 3 Assemble Edits for the purpose of Approvals and Revision. At client’s request and direction, contractor will Edit 1 Final Cut. Additional versions at client’s request and direction will incur additional fees.