What are the key legal requirements for a podcast

Ownership and Copyright requirements

Ownership legal requirements are generally more straight forward. If you have written the content yourself then you have the right to publish and distribute as a podcast. It is also important to remember if use external quotes or material in your podcast that you reference the source and ensure that you are not infringing on copyright. The final key thing you need to remember is to protect the copyright on your own material.

With regards to copyright, if you have guest contributors or writers you use for creating your podcast then it is key that you obtain the publishing and distribution rights from them before you publish or distribute the content. Ideally a written agreement that both parties sign upto.

Image rights

Images typically have their own copyright requirements. So always check to ensure that you own the rights or that the images you source have no copyright requirements.

When contracting a designer to make your show or episode art, make sure you have a strong contract in place to establish ownership and usage rights.

Monetisation taxes

Monetisation of the podcast will require you to pay taxes whether that be for subscriptions, advertising, etc. In addition if you sell products via the podcast promotions these will also be taxed.  Standard practise is to speak to a tax adviser.