Re: Freelance Editing + non competition agreement

Your "friend" is being unreasonable. You need to find a nice / charming / acceptable way of standing your ground while bringing her back onside.

Your are not competing : you have been offered edit work (which your friend does not do).

Her issue, seen one way, is that the end client, perhaps through budget restrictions and perhaps for other reasons, wants to be more "hands on" and bypass producer / director contact and go straight to techs on at least some projects.

With the economy as it is, this may add to any insecurity your friend is feeling.

But whether the end user hires you or someone else, s/he wants to bypass producer level : your friend is not going to get that work. She should be pleased it's come to you : it's a favourable comment on the work you did together.

Agreeing not to compete as a producer with her clients wouild be reasonable, if that would mend your fences with your friend. Otherwise, it might be a case of smiling sweetly and saying no: you can't afford to turn down work that your friend cannot anyway do, if directly approached with it.

If that costs you your friend's projects, you'd have to bear that loss and hope the other work more than compensates. If it costs her friendship, that's sad ; but what kind of friendship was that ?