Hi.. I posted this elsewhere and realized it was probably in the wrong spot.. hope it's ok that I reposted... I want to hire a writer (probably from a different country than me) to write articles for my website... and I want to create a work-for-hire contract before hand. My questions... 1) Is there a way to digitally sign them or do they need to be faxed or mailed? 2) Is there a special agreement necessary if I live in a different country than the writer? 3) Can you point me to a template that would suffice? Any other suggestions you can offer would be appreciated.
It really depends on the country the person you hire lives in. You should really spend time finding someone you trust - for all practical purposes, a legal agreement isn't going to mean anything. You aren't going to spend tens of thousands of dollars to sue someone in another country, where your chances of collecting even if you win are slim to none, over some articles.
So you're asking if there is a stock legal agreement that is legally binding in a country that you haven't named? Yup, it's called the "Universally Binding Agreement under Federation Law" - any Vulcan Attorney should be able to draft one up for you.
Most times the agreement is not going to worth the paper it's printed on. Best to find a writer based on reputation, referrals, and overall professionalism. If they are in India and you are in Canada (for instance), that contract means nothing. Try them out for one or two small projects and see what kind of service you get before diving in and paying them for more advanced orders. Personally, I wouldn't enter into any long term or expensive agreement with anyone that was not accessible by phone. If they are a professional and in business for themselves they will at least have basic communication to deal with clients and not just email or PM's. It really depends on what kind of service you are looking to hire..if you are looking for fast and cheap, you can find that anywhere and take your own risk...if you are looking for a long term relationship, you just need to do your due diligence and make sure that you are dealing with someone reputable. There are a lot of people who misrepresent themselves, use fake names, or just put out a crappy product online and when they are in other countries that were previously, or still are considered "3rd world", or don't recognize the same laws as the country that you are in, there is no way to recoup any losses or protect yourself from fraud or theft.
I was afraid of that...just that I bought a heap of content recently that I was taking my time to post... then suddenly I received Google alerts and found my content used elsewhere before I even had a chance to use it! So I was hoping there was something I could do to prevent that from happening again.. thanks for the great info..