Legal Crap...need proofers.....

[Slackmaster2K]

Well, I never heard back from the lawyer in our group...so I drafted some documents myself. One is the submitter contract and the other is used for permissions from co-creators (if you're recording someone else's work, for instance).

Could someone please proof these for me and offer up any suggestions. They're pretty basic. I threw in some stuff that we did NOT all agree on so let me know if there's anything you'd add or change.

These are in Word 2000 format. I'll post a text version later when they're tighter so that we can all agree on the terms.
http://64.225.32.203/public/hr/i.doc
http://64.225.32.203/public/hr/i1.doc

Thanks,

Slackmaster 2000

[ametth]

I'm on it.

[gaffa]

Slack,

I've looked at i.doc. It looks OK (mind you, I'm not a lawyer, so my opinion doesn't mean much). A couple of comments:

Typo in Section 1 - missing and 'e' in Homerecording.comp

I pulled the next block of text from a standard contract I use - it is just and interpretation clause, and is designed to cover any of the really small niggly bits that get through a contract (like saying "he shall do this", when the contract relates to a she, so technically doesn't apply...)

2. Interpretation
2.1 In the interpretation of this Agreement unless the context otherwise requires:
(a) Words denoting a person shall include corporations, statutory corporations, partnerships, joint ventures, associations, boards, governments or semi-government agencies or authorities.
(b) Words denoting the singular number shall include the plural number and vice versa.
(c) Words denoting any gender shall include all other genders.
(d) A reference to a statute or a regulation also refers to any statute or regulation amending, or consolidating or re-enacting same.
(e) Money references are references to Australian currency.
(f) Headings used in this Agreement are for convenience and ease of reference only, and are not part of this Agreement and shall not be relevant or affect the meaning or interpretation of this Agreement.
(g) Every obligation, covenant, agreement, condition express or implied in this Agreement and entered into by more than one party shall bind them jointly and each of them severally.
(h) If any provision or part provision of this Agreement is held invalid, unenforceable or illegal for any reason, this Agreement shall remain otherwise in full force apart from such provision or part provision which shall be deemed deleted.
(i) This Agreement shall be read in the following order of precedence: the recitals and clauses of this Agreement; and thereafter in the order specified in the schedules, if any.

Every other contract I have seems to have the definition of terms at the top, so there is a single reference point for all that stuff.

That's really it. Some of the language is a bit un-legal in phrasing, but you've got to be pretty anal to write docs like lawyers do

Hope this helps a little.

- gaffa

[gaffa]

One more thing.

You might need some dribble about intellectual property rights (ie. copyright) of the work remaining with the member concerned. Also some sort of indemnification (is that a word?) regarding the originality of the work, which should cover your arse regarding the Vanilla Ice-Queen possibilities.

And to think, all this, so you just want to burn a few copies of a CD of original work. Welcome to the age of litigation, buck passing, and "Sue, Grabbit and Run" law firms.

-gaffa