Jason Adam Dickstein's Answers

Are lawyers generally scared of judges?

My experience is in civil, rather than criminal litigation, and your question really seems to come from a criminal law point-of-view. Nonetheless, I find ti fairly common for judges to "signal" their intent once they have made up their mind about something. Sometimes lawyer keep piling on the information even though there really is enough information in the record to allow a reasonable judge to make up his or her mind. In one of my cases, the plaintiff obtained an ex-parte (meaning that they...

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Are documents created by the Czar's government between 1830 and 1917 still under copyright?

It is true that each document must be individually analyzed for its copyright protections. Russia and Latvia are both signatories to the Berne Convention. Under that Convention, copyrights are granted reciprocal recognition to the same extent as the legal protection in the issuing nation. Thus the first question is whether the documents are afforded copyright protection under Russian law and to what extent. While the minimum term under the Berne Convention was 50 years after the...

Copyright graphic novel

Although an author gets a copyright in a work automatically upon creation, the key thing to consider is registering the copyright. Mr. Assoulin is correct about his advice on timing - your friend should apply for the copyright registration as soon as possible. The registration is inexpensive and that way your friend does not have to worry about an inadvertent publication starting the clock running on the time period for filing. Timing can be important because if registration is made...

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Downloading

Adam Philipp's answer, that such copying is usually precluded from copyright represents the general rule. He is particularly correct with respect to CDs, since they are usually subject to post 1978 copyright. I've known Adam for about 20 years and he is usually way ahead of me on matters such as this (he's one of the leading figures in intellectual property law); but I thought it worth noting that there may be SOME works that one could legally copy from among a library's collection - in...

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Trademark protection

Mark Phillip Walters' answer was an excellent one. To clarify, though, an important advantage to federal registration of your trademark is the ability to obtain certain types of remedies. Under federal law, pre-registration infringements can usually only be remedied through injunctive relief (the court orders the infringer to stop). But if you have registered your trademark then you may seek money damages and possibly even attorneys fees in some cases. Successful registration also serves...

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Donation or fee

You appear to be asking about an event hosted by a qualified 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, in which a portion of the admission fee is considered to be a donation to the organization. Although your question is a little ambiguous, usually people want to know what portion of the admission fee is deductible as a donation to the organization. The fair market value of the event will be considered to be payment for the event, and the amount that exceeds the fair market value will be...

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Home Daycare

Many jurisdictions require that day care centers obtain a special business license fro the jurisdiction. You appear to be in California and California is one such state. You can find more information about California day care center licensing provisions on the state government website at: http://www.cdss.ca.gov/cdssweb/PG69.htm

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Old books published online

Mark Phillip Walters' answer is an excellent one. There are, however some "really old books online" that you can download. Project Gutenberg has been collecting and digitizing public domain texts since 1971. You can find the project's website at http://www.gutenberg.org/ and you can find out more about the history of the project at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Gutenberg. Even with Project Gutenberg, there are license restrictions (as Mr. Walters' suggested in his answer). For...

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LLC vs. S Corp

You are actually looking at two separate (but related) questions, here. First, what sort of entity do you want to form - a corporation? LLC? Partnership? Sole proprietorship? Differences among these can include liability protection, form of governance, ability to sue in the name of the business, and the manner of division of assets upon dissolution. Second, what sort of tax status do you want to elect? Subchapter "S" of the tax code represents an election that is made which allows...

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Can I produce and sell marketing materials that uses a company's logo

Generally, you cannot use another person's trademark for your own profit if there is any possibility of confusion, deceit or mistake as to origin. Thus, while you should not produce and sell signs bearing third-party trademarks to vendors who may be selling the products of those third-parties, you could seek to establish a relationship with the trademark owners whereby they might license you to use their trademarks, or in the alternative seek to sell your signs to the trademark owners themselves.