These Terms and Conditions for the Supply of Contributions to rabble.ca, including any documents referred to (together “Agreement”), shall:
a) apply to all freelance Contributions provided by you to rabble.ca (“rabble”, “we”, “us”), which party for the purposes of this Agreement shall include authorized commissioning agents acting for and on behalf of rabble (“agents”), for use, publication and transmission in rabble.ca’s products; and
b) shall prevail over any other terms and conditions, whether written or oral, unless otherwise agreed in writing between you and rabble.
Please read these terms carefully. You shall be legally bound by these terms when you agree to supply to rabble content that is covered within their scope. You are advised to print off and keep a paper copy of these terms.
Some types of contributions, such as user-generated content have specific terms and conditions and these can be viewed at the following:
Variation of terms
We accept that these standard terms for freelance Contributions may not always be appropriate, for example, if a Contribution has been previously published elsewhere or you have syndication arrangements that potentially conflict with our own. For the purposes of clarity to both parties, any variation of our terms must be agreed prior to publication and shall be subject to the approval of the Editor or their nominees.
Please note there is no obligation for freelancers to accept our standard terms and conditions nor for us to accept Contributions other than on our standard terms and conditions.
Commissions
At the time of commissioning or ordering in your Contribution, you and the relevant editor should agree on terms, including the fee to be paid (it is acknowledged that not all content suppliers shall seek to be paid a fee for Contributions), the deadline and the rights acquired by rabble.ca. You should also agree on the main points to be covered in your Contribution, and any special requirements.
Once you reach a verbal or email agreement to commission or deliver content we will confirm the terms in writing by email.
Rejection of Commissioned Contributions
If a Commissioned Contribution is rejected you should be told quickly: within two weeks for features. If you don’t hear anything, feel free to ask. Editors should not delay unreasonably or deny you the chance to offer an unwanted Commissioned Contribution elsewhere.
We shall pay the agreed fee in full for a Commissioned Contribution that is not used, except where it fails substantially to meet the requirements agreed at the time it was commissioned in which event the fee shall not be less than 25% of the agreed fee.
Please note that unless otherwise agreed we reserve all of the rights set out in our standard Copyright terms below in rejected Commissioned Contributions.
Fees
(A) General
Please note that fees: (a) are quoted in Canadian dollar; and (b) shall apply to all published pieces unless you were commissioned on a no-fee basis. (Note that rabble.ca prioritizes paying working journalists whose works are published, or contributors in financial need. We normally do not pay contributors who have ‘day jobs,’ such as professors, paid organizers, etc.)
Commissioned quick hit news or regular feature Contributions
Rate: $125 – $200
Guest opinion
rabble.ca generally does not pay for non-commissioned op-eds, pieces that come to us fully written, or pieces that have been published elsewhere. We recognize the need for the Canadian media industry to include a more diverse breadth of voices. Knowing this, we have set aside a special budget for BIPOC writers who are at the outset of their writing careers and/or are writing or reporting from a trauma-informed perspective.
Commissioned book reviews
Per piece rate of $100.00 per review.
Commissioned columns
Per piece rate of $150 to $200 per column
Commissioned longer / in depth news features or Investigations
Per piece rate of $250 + depending on pitch
Copyright terms
See: Standard terms for Contributions
Audio interviews
rabble.ca may request that you make yourself available to follow up your Contribution with an interview (“Interview”) for the purposes of its audio and/or audiovisual output including but not limited to the weekly podcast “rabble radio”.
In consideration of rabble.ca arranging to film and/or record the Interview with you at a mutually convenient time, you agree to the recording and/or broadcasting of the Interview and hereby give all consents necessary for the reproduction, exhibition, transmission, broadcast and exploitation of the Interview without time limit throughout the universe by all means and media (whether now known or hereafter discovered or developed) without liability or acknowledgement to you. rabble.ca shall be entitled to cut and edit the Interview as it sees fit and shall not be obliged to include all or any of the Interview in any programme or output.
Joint Contributions
Subject to any agreement to the contrary, the copyright status of Contributions created, produced and/or undertaken jointly by staff employed by us and freelance(s) and/or news and picture agencies engaged by us shall be deemed a joint work between us and the respective freelance(s) and/or said agencies, for example jointly written articles. The copyright terms of the non-staff element shall be subject to the above Copyright terms.
Editing and crediting
rabble.ca reserves the right to edit and amend Contributions as it sees fit.
a) Text
rabble.ca endeavours to identify contributors as the author of their Contribution however the provision of contributor by-lines shall always be subject to editing and layout requirements.
b) Images
rabble.ca publishes or alters images only with explicit permission from the author, or under the appropriate creative commons license. Images are credited.
c) Video
Unless otherwise agreed, contributors shall be credited in the credits section of the relevant video page.
Definitions
“Commissioned Contribution” means material created by you on the basis of a commission from us for transmission, publication or licensing by us. For the avoidance of doubt, in relation to pictures and video “Commissioned Contribution” includes the whole shoot and all negatives, transparencies, digital pictures, unused footage and other original material produced by the contributor during and/or as a result of the shoot.
“Contribution” means material contributed to us – whether as a Commissioned Contribution or otherwise ordered in by or offered to us for publication, transmission or licensing by us.
Delivery of contributions
All Contributions should be filed electronically. Delivery instructions are set out with your commissioning editor.
Safety
It is not our intention to expose freelances to dangerous assignments without appropriate safety training and insurance cover. If you have any concerns in this area you should consult the Editor or their nominee(s) before starting the assignment.
Confidentiality
You undertake both during and after the expiration or termination of this Agreement:
a) to protect and treat confidentially all confidential, trade secret or proprietary information regarding rabble.ca, including all technical, commercial, financial and other information which is obtained from rabble.ca in connection with this Agreement or with the negotiations leading up to it; and
b) not to disclose to any person or company, publish, or use for your own purpose, without the previous written consent of rabble.ca, any of rabble’s confidential information, the existence of any term of this Agreement (other than terms already set out in the public domain by rabble), or the existence of any information about any dispute or disagreement between the parties; and
c) to disclose such documents and information to third parties only so far as it is necessary:
i) for the performance of this Agreement; and/or
ii) to your professional advisers; and/or
iii) as required by law.
Warranties
You hereby represent, warrant and undertake that:
a) You shall not at any time do anything to bring rabble.ca brands, trademarks or reputation into disrepute; and
b) You are entitled to enter into this Agreement and you are not bound by any third party restriction not to do so, including, but not limited to, the right and authority to license the intellectual property rights in and the use of your Contribution on the terms and conditions set forth in this Agreement; and
c) Your Contribution shall be original and not copied wholly or materially from any other source, nor contain defamatory statements nor otherwise breach the privacy, confidentiality or other statutory or common law rights of any third-party; and
d) You shall observe the highest ethical standards in providing your Contribution under this Agreement as part of which you shall be expected: i) to have full regard for rabble.ca’s own journalism policy; ii) to co-operate fully in the event of a complaint about your Contribution; iii) to inform rabble immediately of any actual or potential conflict of interest arising from any engagement or contribution or service You undertake for rabble.ca; and iv) to abide by these social media best practice guidelines for freelance contributors.
Indemnity
rabble.ca shall not indemnify you against any claims of or liability to any third party in respect of defamation.
Notes: Drawn from the model found at from the Guardian.