Gary Kissiah has practiced corporate and technology law for over twenty years and serves on the Board of Directors of the Integral Yoga Institute of San Francisco. Recently, we asked him for some guidance as Covid guidelines begin to be more relaxed and Yoga teachers start thinking about whether to offer on-site classes at their studios/centers. Gary suggested reading this article, which he wrote last year, but still holds relevant and important points to consider when making your decision.
An excerpt from the article: As the stay at home orders have expired and some states are allowing businesses to reopen, yoga studios are considering when and how they should re-open in this new environment in which we now live. I have received many questions about this from our community, and I am personally facing this issue as a director of the Integral Yoga Institute of San Francisco. When the stay at home orders were enacted, yoga studios quickly launched online classes. This has raised questions about protection from liability and intellectual property issues (i.e., who owns the videos).
To respond to these questions, I published the Fourth Edition of Essential Information which discusses protection from liability for online video classes, intellectual property issues relating to ownership of the videos and COVID-19 risks. The book includes new templates of COVID-19 waivers and other resources. The link to purchase the book is in the Resources and here:
https://garykissiah.com/light-on-law-essential-information/
Because this is such a complicated set of questions that is evolving rapidly, I wanted to offer some additional thoughts. I will update this article periodically to address current developments.
My approach to resolving this question is to consider it from a legal, business and yogic point of view. Read more here.
