The buyer wants me to sign a consent form

[lenasemenkova]

Hello, everyone. I asked CS about this and they basically told me: “It’s up to you” and I’m even more confused now.

The buyer wants me to sign a consent form to credit me as a designer/illustrator. He says it’s fine for me to sign it with my fiverr username and put fiverr as “company/affiliate”. Other things that are required are the date and the signature and that’s it.

The buyer says it’s a formality to ensure they don’t get sued if they don’t credit me. Hence, just in case, I need to be credited, hence the form.

The thing is, doesn’t the buyer automatically get the copyright for the delivered materials (unless stated otherwise in the gig description)? I don’t ask to be credited anywhere. I don’t mention that I want to keep the copyright anywhere.

How even legally binding is the form that contains no personal information in it? What is this? Just a formality on their end? Something else?

[arty182925]

I don’t think you need to sign anything. I wouldn’t to be honest. Buyers are getting all copyrights on Fiverr when they pay for it. (or better to say, when order is marked as completed and not cancelled, if ordered is cancelled then they can’t use any work).

If they want just to credit you, they can just mention you. I get many buyers who wants to credit me as book formatter and they are just adding my name to the book (copyright page)

[uk1000]

Hello, everyone. I asked CS about this and they basically told me: “It’s up to you” and I’m even more confused now.

The buyer wants me to sign a consent form to credit me as a designer/illustrator. He says it’s fine for me to sign it with my fiverr username and put fiverr as “company/affiliate”. Other things that are required are the date and the signature and that’s it.

The buyer says it’s a formality to ensure they don’t get sued if they don’t credit me. Hence, just in case, I need to be credited, hence the form.

The thing is, doesn’t the buyer automatically get the copyright for the delivered materials (unless stated otherwise in the gig description)? I don’t ask to be credited anywhere. I don’t mention that I want to keep the copyright anywhere.

How even legally binding is the form that contains no personal information in it? What is this? Just a formality on their end? Something else?

The buyer says it’s a formality to ensure they don’t get sued if they don’t credit me. Hence, just in case, I need to be credited, hence the form.

That could just be it. And if it doesn’t contain anything else apart from the mentioned things maybe it’s okay (but why would they get sued if they can show that they bought it on Fiverr or that could be shown if they ever did get sued? Who would sue them?). It could lead to an increase in orders if people like the design. I don’t know if it could increase risk to you over anything the company could have been sued for (like if someone was going to sue the company about the design - like they thought it was too similar to something else, even though the buyer would then own all the rights).

If unsure it’s probably best not to sign it. Or maybe by law they do have to get consent to show someone’s name as a credit, even if it’s not specified in a form (it could just be a Fiverr message that says yes they can credit)?

[insects44]

If they ask you, I think they need the full copyrights and agreement that you will do what they need (I mean it should be nicely done). If you are ok with that, you can sign it. Some of my buyers asked me before too.

[looseink]

You know, this is a good question.

I’ve always viewed myself as a ghostwriter. That means I write for others who pay me for what I create and they use however they wish including taking credit for something they did not create.

I’ve been okay with that since I first started freelancing.

Then a client one day suggested giving me a byline (my name appearing where it says the article was written by). As a former newspaper editor I was sort of surprised as I never took many bylines in my newspaper as I wrote 85% of the content. I didn’t need the credit.

So, the client pressed me for a yes or no and I said yes. No forms to fill out. He just liked what content I provided so much that he wanted me to get some recognition for it.

I currently write for a US company (one of my many jobs including Fiverr work) that gives me bylines (and a profile) on one of their online products I contribute to. No forms to fill out. I just had to provide a short bio and a headshot.

It’s nice to get credit, so I wouldn’t hesitate to sign consent forms if asked. The Buyer is being really nice about it asking you to sign consent forms. That could be a Buyer you’ll want to work for again.

[lenasemenkova]

You know, this is a good question.

I’ve always viewed myself as a ghostwriter. That means I write for others who pay me for what I create and they use however they wish including taking credit for something they did not create.

I’ve been okay with that since I first started freelancing.

Then a client one day suggested giving me a byline (my name appearing where it says the article was written by). As a former newspaper editor I was sort of surprised as I never took many bylines in my newspaper as I wrote 85% of the content. I didn’t need the credit.

So, the client pressed me for a yes or no and I said yes. No forms to fill out. He just liked what content I provided so much that he wanted me to get some recognition for it.

I currently write for a US company (one of my many jobs including Fiverr work) that gives me bylines (and a profile) on one of their online products I contribute to. No forms to fill out. I just had to provide a short bio and a headshot.

It’s nice to get credit, so I wouldn’t hesitate to sign consent forms if asked. The Buyer is being really nice about it asking you to sign consent forms. That could be a Buyer you’ll want to work for again.

The buyer has since reached out and told me it was “handled”. I was happy to let this go at that point. We worked multiple times since then (boring marketing stuff, nothing creative that would require a credit) and he’s indeed a pleasure to work with.