Freelance non-compete?

[Timothy J. allen]

I’ve signed reasonable non-compete agreements for certain long-term contracts. The key word here is “reasonable”.

As Nick mentioned, there are certain roles in production where a contracted employee may gain enough knowledge to hurt the company that found the job and hired them for it. I understand that and respect it.

The definition of “reasonable” for a full-time employee is not the same as for a freelancer, since it would force you to give up one of the primary advantages of freelance work.

There have been times that I’ve refused to sign certain non-compete agreements – or negotiated them back with the employer to be “reasonable” before agreeing to the work.

An example:
Several years ago, I had a contract agreement presented to me that asked me to list every invention or licensable idea that I had before working for them. The contract stipulated that that company owned perpetual rights to any processes or innovations that I did not list on the document. It wouldn’t have mattered if I could prove that I thought of the idea or process or innovation before my contract of employment – if it wasn’t listed, they could claim it. It also stipulated that I could not work for anyone else “in the entertainment industry” during my employment – or for two years after. This was purely a TV production job so for me, as a songwriter and part-time technology enthusiast, the language was clearly overreaching. I marked those sections out and said “no thanks”. Meanwhile, I saw MANY other people sign the same agreement without questioning it.

I really think that particular sections of that contract would have proven to be “unenforceable” due to the overreaching language, but I didn’t want to be in a position to find out.

NDAs are another matter. I will always keep proprietary information to myself and I don’t mind signing non-disclosure agreements at all. That’s the nature of modern business, and I understand that companies need the right to protect the intellectual property that they work hard to create.

If I were a freelancer, a non-compete agreement would need to be extremely specific in scope and I would need to be compensated fairly to make up for any potential lost business during and after the term of the contract.

[Matt Gottshalk]

Non competes are unenforceable. Don’t sign it.

McGee Digital Media Inc.
24P HD Production and Post

[Steve Wargo]

[Craig Seeman] “Probably not in most other hemisphere’s either.”

Uh Craig, how many hemispheres are there?

Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona
It’s a dry heat!

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