mold in apartment

I have mold growing behind my toilet and fungus growing out of my drywell next to the toilet. My landlord will not let me terminate my lease. What rights do I have as a tenent?

Copy right

I write poetry and literature that i like to share with others. Do i have to copyright my work, or is it automatically protected?

unorthorized use of material for book

I entered into an agreement to share research with an author for the purpose of co-authoring a book. He has used my research and contacts and published something without my permission. He now looks set to enter into a film deal claiming all contacts are his alone. E mail clearly states we are co-authors and info is for book alone. How do I proceed to protect my interests. The event was major news many years ago but my story was never released and has been put in print recently and is about to be used in movie.

Picture rights

If a major metropolitan newspaper puts a picture of your home on the front page, do they need your permission first?

Can martial arts moves be copyrighted?

I'm interested in producing an online instructional video database, as well as dvd's, of martial arts techniques.

There are already hundreds of instructional dvds available, many of which contain techniques already contained on other dvd's. When these techniques become known, they spread quickly through the martial arts community.

Martial arts instructors view these dvd's and teach the techniques to their students. The students use them in tournaments. Many martial arts websites feature these techniques on their websites. The techniques are often filmed and posted to YouTube and other sites.

It would be difficult to determine who ''created'' a technique, and there are thousands of techniques. Most are subtle variations of other techniques. The big question is...

How concerned do I need to be about this? Do I need to reference the source where I learned it from?

And, if I do need to reference where I learned them from, can I demonstrate any techniques I want as long as I reference the source I learned it from?

Could I use just one general reference section on my website to cover all the techniques, or do I need to reference each one individually?

Thank you.

Intellectual for a software product.

Can a person take legal action against someone if they took a game already owned by a different company such as Electronic Arts with modified content such as decorations, colors and things of that nature which are of their own creation? Claiming the info they put into the game is their intellectual property?

what is binding?

Is a handwritten, dated promise binding if not notorized and can it be amended if both parties agree to the change but no amendment was originally provided for?

Copyright infringement

Hi,

I've been commissioned to write an article for a national magazine, and want to quote George Bush. I saw the quote in the N. Y. Times. If I attribute the quote to Bush, but not to the Times, would I be infringing upon the Times copyright?

Thanks,

Mel

Retail Store and Trademark

Hi.

A few years ago a former employee of the bookstore group that I currently work for designed a tshirt for the store(s). I wanted to develop a logo for the store and incorporated an image of an element from that tshirt. I emailed him to let him know I was using it and he informed me that he had trademarked it, but that he didn't mind if the store used it. I've tried to conduct trademark searches and have come up emptyhanded. Further, I thought to be a trademark it must be associated with a good or service (which I don't believe he sells), so I am somewhat skeptical.

Must he have filed for a trademark license in order for it to actually be trademarked, or is the mere fact that he says it is ''trademarked'' enough? Does the image actually belong to him if he dsigned it in the capacity of a store employee, or does it belong to the company? Should I get his permission to use the image in writing to protect the store from possible litigation in the future?

Thank you for any info you can provide.

Who owns a tradmark?

Another guy is using the same name as I am for business (let's say: ABC Company). I am a sole proprietor. He was using the name first, but has not filed ''Doing Business As'' with the state. I filed my papers a year ago...I also own the domain name. If I trademark the name before he does, will I have the rights to it?

Animation

Is it true that if Pixar or any body else created a 3D character which is a car with eyes at the windshield, so that no body allowed to create a different car with the same eyes (I mean at the windshield)?

Can Pixar sue me for this?

Is the bar exam still a possibility for me?

I am currently an engineering student and would like to be a lawyer if it is still possible. Both my GPA and LSAT scores are good, but I am not sure if I could be admitted into a top ranked law school because of the mistake I made in my first year of college that I sincerely regret, that cumulated to a class B misdemeanor charge, that of theft. I understand the grave importance of a crime of moral turpitude, and I am very concerned as to how this may affect my ability to enroll in a law school and also in the future if I will be allowed a chance when I take the bar exam. Is there any kind of information you can provide me on just how detrimental this record will have on my attempts to become a lawyer?

Music Royalties

How does one go about obtaining the rights to use music from their favorite artists? This would be for using their music in musical slideshows to be shared on the internet-- and possibly sold.

Thanks

I would like to build a new website and need legal advice

Hello,

I have a concept for a pay per lead website. I have never been in the ''dot com'' business and am lost. I bought a domain name and have been talking with web designers, but before I get too deep, I need some legal advice. Do attourneys usually write the ''terms of use'' sections for websites? What about the privacy statement. Is there a standard? what will it cost to trademark my name and copywrite the site? Should I be dealing with a local attourney that I can meet face to face, or is over the internet okay? Basically Im trying to form a budget for this project and I have no idea what the legal aspect is going to cost me. Obviously, I want to protect myself from any liability concerning issues that come up with my customers once they contact each other through my leads but I don't even know where to begin. Any help would be much appreciated!

Documents subject to privilege

Suppose a party has internal correspondence discussing the facts of a matter and whether they should retain an attorney, and they eventually do. The correspondence is eventually shown to the attorney, who comments on it. Is the correspondence, created before they retained an attorney, privileged?

In a related vein, is it permissible to ask (in an interrogatory) when they retained an attorney, and what the attorney's name was?

Publish America Scam

Hi, I am an aspiring author who recently made a trmendous mistake. I signed a contract with a publisher without fully researching them and now I have discovered that they are a big scam agent who mislead their authors and whose claims on their website are illegitimate. I have informed them that I wish to terminate the contract I signed with them on March 15, 2007 and have respectfully asked for my rights back. They are telling me that they will not release me from the contract and will pursue legal means. All I want is the contract terminated and my rights returned. They do not even have my full book, only three chapters of it. What can I do?

Do I have to turn over a document used for impeachment?

I am a pro se litigant. I asked for a document in discovery that should have been under the exclusive control of the other party and the other side it said it does not exist.

I was able to obtain it legitimately, though their carelessness, and I can show that they should have known it existed. I want to use it at trial to impeach the credibility of their witness, showing that they either withheld discoverable evidence or were wantonly neligent in not searching for it. I also want to introduce it for other primary evidentiary purposes purposes. If they make a request for documents that might include this document, and I do not produce it, am I then barred from using it at trial?

I also have phone records showing calls between me and an opposing party. Do I have to produce those, even if the sole purpose of using them would be to impeach, i.e. if I say ''How much time did we spend on the phone?'' and they say ''Maybe an hour a month'' and I then produce records showing it was more like 10 hours a month? Can I withold those on the assumption that the witness will testify accurately, then use them only if she does not?

This is in an admistrative hearing before the Trademark Board, so it is under the Federal Rules.

lien on a house

Hello, can you please direct me how I can put a lien on a house I lend some money to a person and I have notariced everting and I do not know what type of forms and where to get it.

Ip law help

I am looking for an attorney well versed in IP law. Can anyone help?

Code Ownership

The organization I work for has developed a web-based software program in which we sell subscriptions. We hired a programming company to do all the programming/development etc. We were under contract with them but after we released the site to the marketplace our contract was done. We paid them their money and are done. Now we need to make some upgrades to the site (i.e. come out with version 2.0) We had planned on doing this all along but never made an agreement to use the programmers that originally developed the site. We have found another programming firm locally and would like to have them do the programming going forward. In order to do this they need a complete CD with all the code, backup databases, files etc such that they can upload the site onto their server. I have requested this and our programmers do not want to give us all of this, they will give us part of what we want but not enough of the files to change to another programmer. I would like to know who leagally owns the code/databases/files etc. and must they supply us with this upon our request? If they must then can I reference the law that binds them to this?