Weblogs Inc contract exposed

Weblogs Inc contract exposed

Weblogs Inc. offered Kate Hopkins of Accidental Hedonist a gig with Slashfood. She asked about the contract, got either stonewalled or innocently forgotten (I'd guess the latter). So she posted the contract in a comment on Food Blog S'cool.

Highlights (Most of this is boilerplate, but you care anyway, don't you. Geek.):

"You shall be an independent contractor and you acknowledge and confirm Your status as such. Nothing herein shall be deemed or construed to create a joint venture, partnership, agency or employee/employer relationship between the parties for any purpose, including but not limited to taxes or employee benefits."

"You shall not create any obligation or make any representations on behalf of Weblogs, Inc. and You will not hold Yourself out to the public as having any right or authority to do so."

"As compensation for Services rendered, Weblogs, Inc. shall pay You $500.00 for 125 monthly blog posts, along with monitoring of comments, responding to readers in comments, and deleting offensive comments. Posts under the goal of 125 will be pro-rated at $4.00 per post."

"Weblogs, Inc. has advised you that, as a condition of Weblogs, Inc.’s use of Your services, Weblogs, Inc. requires that You sign and deliver to it a confidentiality, non-solicitation, and non-competition agreement in the form of this letter. In order to induce Weblogs, Inc. to use Your services, You are herewith executing and delivering to Weblogs, Inc. this letter intending that Weblogs, Inc. rely on it."

"You shall not own, operate, manage or be employed or engaged in any work that is in direct competition with the Services you provide to Weblogs, Inc., blogging Gadlin.com and our upcoming Food blog, during the term of this agreement and for a period of six months following the termination of this agreement;

You shall not attempt in any manner to solicit from any customer or supplier of Weblogs, Inc. business of the type performed for or by Weblogs, Inc., during the term of this agreement and for a period of six months following the termination of this agreement; and You shall not employ as an employee or retain as a consultant, or persuade or attempt to persuade any person who is or was, an employee, agent of or consultant to Weblogs, Inc. to leave Weblogs, Inc. or become employed as an employee or retained as a consultant by anyone other than Weblogs, Inc., during the term of this agreement and for a period of six months following the termination of this agreement."

"Weblogs, Inc. acknowledges that You are being engaged on a non-exclusive basis and that You may engage in 'other business' activities during the term of this agreement except as provided in Your Covenant Not to Compete as set forth above. 'Other business' activities includes, without limitation, writing for print publications and for personal web sites, and recording for distribution online, by podcast, CD/DVD, and other recording media. Weblogs, Inc."

The incident is Metafiltered. Some commenters are sad that The Man is taking over the Cool New Anarchic Space: "Which is to circuitously say, fuck Weblogs Inc for doing their part in turning what once felt like a revolution into yet another obvious gimmegimme Nike Revolution whoreathlon."

As always, the real reason to visit Metafilter is for the inevitable descent into surrealism: "Damnit. I only get paid in recumbent bikes. I like recumbent bikes and all, but have you ever tried to buy a loaf of bread with one? They only give you your change in rubber pants."


http://www.blogebrity.com/blog/2005/08/weblogs-inc-contract-exposed.php


http://www.blogebrity.com/blog/2005/08/