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Anti-Development Group Wants to Post Design Plans
1908 Sears Roebuck Home Kit Sold for $1548Dear Rich: I am working for a group of neighbors taking action against a proposed development in our neighborhood. We are establishing a Facebook page and an...
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Reviewing Apps on YouTube
Dear Rich: I am a relatively new YouTuber that is focusing on how to help other parents of autistic children. I thought it would be helpful to positively review different apps that I have used with my...
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Wants to Digitize Yearbooks and Student Newspapers
Dear Rich: I am part of an effort at a California community college to assist in digitizing and digitally hosting our college's history. Students are hoping to digitize/host: archived copies of the...
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Can I Origami TV and Movie Characters?
Dear Rich: Some origamists create figures that resemble characters from tv shows, movies, comic books, etc. When the diagrams to fold those figures are published in an origami book or magazine they...
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Why Is It So Hard to License Pop Music for Podcasts?
Dear Rich: Are there standard fees negotiated for using pop music in podcasts? Does music licensing work as it does in commercial use, where one must obtain both master and mechanical licenses?No,...
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Does A Federal Trademark Applicant Need Physical Presence in U.S.?
Dear Rich: Can a non-U.S. citizen obtain a federal trademark application?Yes, a non-U.S. citizen or company can register a trademark in the U.S. However, if the foreign-applicant doesn't reside or have...
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How Do I Stop Compulsory License?
Dear Rich: How does one prevent a compulsory license from being obtained? For example, what if I don't WANT anyone else recording MY song? Can a publisher and/or a copyright owner refuse to grant a...
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Can Publisher Say What is Fair Use?
Dear Rich: I'm an academic co-editing a book with a major university press. Out of an abundance of caution, our editor requested we check on permissions for a number of quotations, etc., with the...
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Why Can't I Post Erotic Fiction About a Real Celebrity?
Dear Rich: I wrote a short satirical erotica series about a C-List public figure. She already knows as she mentioned me in an online magazine article. One digital publishing platform removed these...
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Never Say Forever: Music Master Ownership
Dear Rich: The term "in perpetuity" appears in record contracts quite often in regard to ownership of masters yet that same term is quite often the subject of many problems, in particular as they...
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Will Your NDA Still Work After DTSA?
Dear Rich: I'm pitching a product to a potential licensor soon and planning to use an NDA from your book. After the new law, will your NDA still work?We assume you're using the NDA from our book,...
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Are Teachers Public Figures?
the "involuntary public figure"Dear Rich: I worked for the public schools in Minnesota and after observing many things I didn't like, I resigned and then wrote an expose that I now sell for my Texas...
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Does Weird Al Qualify as a Parody Fair Use?
Dear Rich: In a recent answer you linked to a blog posting by Weird Al Yankovich in which he says the following: "My parodies have always fallen under what the courts call “fair use,” and this one was...
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What Should My Cease and Desist Letter Say?
From the PDR's Decayed DaguerreotypesCollection (Portrait of Emma Bostwick)Dear Rich — I just stumbled across a commercial venture’s Web site that uses my photograph at the top of their main page and...
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Can You Copyright an X-Ray?
Dear Rich: I am developing a mobile educational app using diagnostic x-ray images obtained from free access websites. Are x-rays subject to copyright protection in the U.S. and the rest of the world?...
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How Do I Argue That Something Isn't a Fair Use?
Dear Rich: We are attempting to have something removed from Google's search results as it is infringing on a client's copyright. I understand that in many cases this may be "fair use" and that is...
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Can I Sell Stuff I Found in a Dumpster?
Dear Rich: Can I legally sell products that I found in a dumpster?The general rule is that you can keep and dispose of property once it has been deposited in a trash receptacle from which routine...
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Will Fictional PR Consultant Get Sued?
Dear Rich: I would really appreciate your input on a piece of fiction I am writing, involving a public relations employee. In my book, the PR employee divulges information about one of her clients to a...
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Do I Have to Pay to Use Pre-Installed Fonts?
Dear Rich: I own a Macbook Pro computer that came with the fonts Avenir and Avenir Next in the system. I have used these fonts extensively for my consulting work to produce reports, many of which are...
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E&O Insurance Needed for Documentary
Reed Bontecou’s Portraits of Wounded Soldiers (1865)Dear Rich: I have been working on a historical documentary for about two years now and just started submitting it to film festivals. I have about 50...
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