Signed releases can save your neck

Last week I spent a few days roving the halls and filming interviews at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco.   The place was swarming with  camera people grabbing interviews.  The equipment we used to capture interviews varied considerably.   In fact, the only constant I could find was that none of us bothered to get a signed release from anyone we interviewed.  Are releases too old school, or is it just that news capture is a special case?

I always recommend that business clients get a release for any interview they capture and plan to put on the net.  The bigger the company, the deeper that company’s pockets, the greater the likelihood that sooner or later you will get sued by a disgruntled ex-employee or business partner. 

Can a good release really prevent lawsuits from happening?  Consider the case of the arch comedy Borat about a fictional Kazakhstani journalist. There is no question that some of the people who appeared on the film were way too drunk to be considered competent when they signed the releases they were given.  Best as I can tell, it didn’t make a difference. None of the lawsuits made it very far.  If a good release can protect producers who create outrageous scenarios to trick drunken buffoons into singing "throw the Jew down the well" on camera they can probably cover most legitimate uses of web video.