Blog

When my grandmother passed away a couple of years ago, we were all devastated. Beyond the initial grief, however, there was also dismay – my father had been pushing her for years to declutter and downsize, and we knew that she had only ever made the most token of...

January 1, 2019 was a big day in the world of copyright law. In order to understand why, I’ll need to give you some backstory. Back in 1998, there were a number of corporations – Disney being the most notable – petitioning Congress to extend the duration of copyright...

Congratulations, you found a publisher that wants to publish your work! All that’s left now is to sign the contract and…oh my, that’s a lot of paper. And you’re not sure what even half of those words mean. But it’s okay to just sign it, right? The important thing is...

As I’m sure most of you have heard, Stan Lee passed away on November 12 of this year. It’s not clear at this time whether he had a will or not. What the media is focusing on is the drama that surrounded him at the end of his life, which doesn’t appear to be settling...

This question comes up a lot in my practice. Since they are two different jobs, that come with different responsibilities, I ask my clients who they want to name for each job. They’re fine with it for the trustee, since that question comes first, but when I ask them...

I’ve talked a bit about what a copyright is, and about what rights you have under copyright. But what exactly do you do with a copyright? Sure, it has value, but what could you do to maximize that value? This is an important question if you ever want to sell the...

If you’re reading this article, it’s probably because a) you find yourself in the unenviable position of being the trustee of someone’s trust, or b) you suspect you will be in that position in the future. In either case, you have no idea what this means, or what a...

You’ve come up with an idea for your business – you’ll teach cats how to swing dance! You’ve put together your dance track, gotten your scratch-proof body suit, and lined up your graphic designer for your marketing materials. Then a question from the designer stops...

I’ve had several occasions now where I talk to an author, and they mention how frustrating it is that this publisher has the rights to their book and, for one reason or another, the publisher refused to give the rights back when the author asked for it. I promptly ask...