Washington Entertainment Legal Questions

I would make photocopies of your receipt(s), and all card information, and contact the headquarters of the store and complain. $160 is a lot of money to lose, and you should be able to work out something with the store. If that doesn't work, then sue them in small claims court, but make sure you have copies of all the paperwork to prove your side of the story.... Read More

This is really not my area, being an injury attorney. If it were me, I would go to the store where I purchased the card and ask if there is a procedure to cancel the card and get a refund. My guess is that there is no such procedure. It is kind of like having 160 in cash that is misplaced or stolen. You can't go to the US Treasury and ask for the cash to be replaced. Now, if the card was in the possession of the store when it was misplaced, you may have a claim against the store for not taking better care of the card.... Read More

I'd have to know more to answer this question. Are you the 22 year old or the 16 year old? And what do you mean by "date"? If a 22 year old in the US is contacting a 16 year old in Europe, and having relationship-type conversations, and sending sexual photos back and forth, the 22 year old in the US may indeed be charged with Child pornography charges and other charges and end out spending 10 or more years in prison and being labeled as a sexual predator for life. Anyone in the US who is over age 18 who wants to carry on any sort of relationship with anyone under age 18 who is anywhere in the world, should first bring the details to a lawyer and get advice. Better yet, if you are over 18, carry on relations only with people who are also over 18 years old.... Read More

Yes, the teacher or the school is responsible to return your phone or pay for it if it is a public school. If you attend a private school, you and your parents may have agreed to any set of rules, even ones that don't agree with law. The teacher probably should not have gotten into this complex area of law by seizing your property. Since she did so, she should have immediately given you a receipt that both of you signed, with a description of the phone and an explanation of how you could retrieve your phone. She should have probably just told you to put the phone away, but maybe she had reason to think you would not do so. This is different from a bailor - bailee situation, where you voluntarily give something to someone for safekeeping, such as in a coat check. In this situation, your phone was seized by an authority and the authority has a duty to keep it safe for you. I am not sure how she could lose the phone before the end of class. Maybe one of your classmates stole it off the teacher's desk.... Read More

You should contact a lawyer, show them the contract, and let them help you. I do this very kind of work and so do many other lawyers. No one can really tell you if your contract has been breached if they have not even seen the contract. Also, what you are experiencing could possibly have been avoided if you had the contract looked at and changed a bit before you signed. Most likely, you should act quickly on this, because it sounds like you are acquiescing to not being paid. In any such a contract, you should have a clause that says you are entitled to an accounting every so often, so you know what sales have been made and how much you are to be paid. Most such contracts also have a threshold in sales that must be met before you are paid. The company will usually wait until the royalties add up to a certain amount before they made a payment. Also, if you took money upfront, you should have specified that was not an advance against royalties. If you took an advance that is recoupable from the royalties, it may be that you are still paying that off. To find out about all of this, of course, I would need to read the contract that you signed. ... Read More

You need to talk with a trademark lawyer about the exact name you want to use and for what, not about a hypothetical name. You would be looking to get a trademark on the name you want to use. There may be issues of right of publicity as well as of trademark. The right of publicity holds while a person is alive, and in some states, the right of publicity can be retained by the family after the person's death. You would not likely be able to use the name "Lennon" because there are already many trademarks and trademark applications on that name. If you chose a name of a person for whom publicity rights no longer could apply, such as someone who has been dead for at least 70 years, and a name that does not already have a trademark in a similar category of goods or services, you might be able to use the name and get a trademark on it. But that is very questionable and you still need to discuss this with a lawyer and have the lawyer secure a trademark before you count on using the name.... Read More

The conditions for you to leave as a member of an LLC are determined by the state law that the LLC was formed under and any operating agreement that have in place. What will matter here is whether the film rights are property of the LLC or are your property if you leave the LLC. It is impossible to say without looking at the operating agreement and the applicable state law. This is a good example of why it is very important to have an operating agreement in place when you go into business with someone so you know what will happen to the company assets if you want to exit.... Read More

Streaming is a dangerous game, particularly when you know, or should know, that most users and most of the streaming is illegal. Here's a key question: Is this website only for people to listen to their own music, or does it let you, for example, listen to the music belonging to a friend? The former can be relatively safe, legally-speaking, and the later not. Basically, you need to have a legal consult to hash out these details.... Read More

I'd need some more facts to really answer this question, but with more facts comes legal advice, and for that you'd need to have a personal consultation. What you're attempting to do sounds very complex and expensive. If your idea is to stream entire Hollywood movies online, you must be very well capitalized. If you are talking about a "review site" where you only want to stream short clips, your idea may be more workable. Streaming, as in Internet radio, is also another topic that you should discuss with an attorney. Have a look at Sound-exchange to start understanding how Internet music streaming works.... Read More

Dear Questioner, Generally NO, you need to license anything you want to use. But if you think what you're using may be covered under FAIR USE, you should really sit down and discuss it with an attorney. There are very few 100% clear examples of fair use, and it doesn't sound like you have one, so you'll need to consult. Licensing clips is often inexpensive and worth looking into.... Read More