Thank you for being willing to share your story. Before we record, we will need you to sign this form. It does two things: it tells you upfront how we operate, and it protects our small ministry if a legal issue ever comes up. Take your time with it, run it by anyone you'd like, and if anything gives you pause, just ask.
1. Permission. You give us (Malak Media LLC, the company behind the Almost False Podcast) permission to record you, and to use the video and audio from these recordings — along with your image, voice, and public name — to create and share media content and promotion, in any format and on any platform. We are the sole owners of the recordings, and you assign us all rights you have in them and in everything we make from them, including the copyright. All of this is irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual, licensable, and transferable. What we own is the recordings, not your story — you're free to tell it anywhere else, anytime.
2. No payment. To protect everyone's credibility, neither of us pays the other. You agree that our work recording and producing your story is good and valuable consideration for this agreement.
3. Monetization and release. Our content may earn money through ads, memberships, or merchandise. That money helps support the ministry, and you agree you aren't owed a share of it. Whether a content piece is free, paywalled, or both is up to us, and that can change. We reserve the right not to publish a content piece, or to take one down later. If that happens, neither of us owes the other anything.
4. Editing. We may edit the recordings, which can include shortening, reordering, separating, or removing parts of the conversation. We do this in good faith, for reasons like clarity, length, quality, and accuracy.
5. Titles and thumbnails. We may use a screenshot from the video and place your face next to images that convey the topic of your story. If there are kinds of images you'd rather not be associated with, tell us before the content piece comes out and we'll do our best to accommodate you.
6. Translations. We may use automated tools to generate captions, transcripts, and translations. These tools are imperfect, and you agree that we and our team aren't liable for those errors.
7. AI. You give us permission to use AI on your image and voice from the recordings. This includes modifying a screenshot of you for a thumbnail — lighting, resolution, angle, facial expression, and other similar adjustments — and auto-dubbing features that create translated audio using a synthetic version of your voice. We won't use AI to show you doing or saying something you didn't do or mean.
8. Your responsibility. You're responsible for what you choose to share. You can skip any question, pause, or stop at any time. You agree not to hold us or our team liable for any personal, professional, relational, financial, or legal consequences of what you voluntarily shared. If something doesn't sit right with you afterward, tell us as soon as possible and we'll look for a way to cut it, though once it's published that isn't always possible.
9. What we ask of you. You confirm that what you share will be true as you understand it, that you won't use it to unfairly attack anyone, that telling this story won't break an NDA or professional confidence, that you've thought carefully about other people you name, and that you haven't promised your story exclusively to anyone else. If you send us photos, video, or music, you're confirming they're yours to share, that anyone identifiable in them has agreed, and that we can use them the same way as the recordings. If something you confirmed turns out to be wrong and creates a legal problem for us, you agree to cover the reasonable costs, including legal fees, as far as the law allows.
10. Release. You give up any claims connected to these recordings against us and our team — including defamation, invasion of privacy, use of your name or likeness, emotional distress, and claims you don't know about yet, which some laws would otherwise exclude — and you agree not to sue over how the recordings are made, edited, published, or promoted. This doesn't cover us or our team knowingly saying something false about you. If you want a content piece taken down, please come to us rather than a court or a platform. Where local law limits this, it applies as far as allowed.
11. Legal details. This form is the whole agreement between us — anything we discussed beforehand doesn't change it, and later changes need to be in writing. It also covers any follow-up recordings, and it continues if the show changes hands, binding both of our successors. Signing this doesn't make you our employee, contractor, or partner. Our team can rely on this form as if they had signed it. If any part doesn't hold up legally, the rest still does, and anything broader than the law allows applies as narrowly as needed to stay valid. New Jersey law applies, and any dispute will be handled in the state or federal courts serving Somerset County, New Jersey. If a dispute ever reaches court, we both agree a judge will decide it rather than a jury. If either of us has to go to court to enforce this form, the side that loses covers the other's reasonable legal costs.