This was a botched attempt at spinning bad news into something else. If the message was more forthcoming I suspect there'd be a lot less ire. I'm unlikely to opt for a streaming+dvd plan. Hey, maybe I'll get some stuff done around the house!

I'm sorry to disagree with you, but a huge problem in state legislatures is that the congressmembers are NOT lawyers and write legislation that is really costly to sort out when it gets litigated.

As a rule, legislators don't actually write the laws. Professional draftsmen are usually employed for this purpose.

Absolutely! BigLaw is (was?) a house of cards waiting for the right circumstances to blow it over. My law practice is only part time, and I run it like my software company operates - lean, innovative and hellbent on providing really good value for clients. I have more than enough legal clients in the pipeline to keep me busy and my startup background gives me a great foundation for advising my target clients. As for tools to run my practice, if I can't get what I need at a reasonable price I build it and make it available to my colleagues at a reasonable price.

You sound like my kind of lawyer. We should be organizing like-minded lawyers and forcing changes on a bigger scale.

Please get in touch with me. My firm's homepage should appear in my profile.

Another lawyer here who feels the same way. Cheers.

(presuming you are in the US) : If you are under crushing debt, go see a bankruptcy attorney. There are some kinds of debt that can help (like credit cards, judgments, contracts) but some it can't (like student loans, child support and maintenance). As an attorney I have seen plenty of people in bad situations that were just made unbearable by a debt load, and have seen them thrive once that monkey was off their backs. It's no fun, but it's a rational solution to that part of your problems. You can't start your next chapter if you're paralyzed by debt. If you are in the kind of straits you say you are, your credit rating is crap anyway, so what's to lose? Get a fresh start.

Definitely educate yourself, but don't forget what your core business and get distracted trying to do everything yourself. The services you hire - whether legal, artistic, development, accounting - can be force multipliers for you. Believe it or not there are attorneys out there who have experience as technologists and entrepreneurs that can keep you out of hot water. Find one that you can develop a good working relationship with and you won't get nickeled and dimed for every phone call (I take a lot of questions over the phone or email, many I can answer in a couple of minutes and don't charge for).

Just like any other business, there are those out there that want to drain the entire LVA in the first month. The good ones will help you develop that relationship that helps you maximize the value you get from your attorney.

Make sure you understand how the attorney bills for services. If you're not sure, ask - "do you charge for phone calls" - "do you bill actual time or six minute increments" - "will you discount your rate if I pay early?" Get those in writing in the retainer agreement.

In a sense, that's true, but the protection for unfiled inventions is not infinite. The at-sale bar goes a long ways to helping inventors get it right without unduly delaying filing for patent protection

Currently US patents give priority to the first to invent. So, if you invented a widget and spent six months perfecting that when your next door neighbor filed a patent one day after he "invented" it, your ability to prove you were first to invent (through evidence like your research notebooks, etc.), the USPTO could refuse or invalidate your neighbor's patent and award you the patent. That goes away with first to file, which means that the people with the deepest pockets who can afford to file patent applications quickly will wind up winning the race. Most of the rest of the world uses first-to-file.

I think your point about having financial reserves is relevant, and I also think that having the motivation to have a reserve requires financial sense that, unfortunately, is not wide spread. I am an attorney that does volunteer work by handling bankruptcies "pro bono" through a local non-profit. Every bankruptcy case has it's one unique set of circumstances but there is a consistent pattern. First, the debtors don't have a good understanding of money or personal finance. Usually that's a product of not having parental examples of good money handling. Second (and perhaps because of the lack of understanding) they don't pay attention to finances if there is a resource to pay for things (cash or credit). Third, there is a watershed event like a loss of a job or a major health crisis. Fourth and finally, they wait too long before getting help. If I were king for a day, I'd make sure that financial education was mandatory in high school and was spread out throughout the high school years rather than being taught in a single quarter or semester.

Yes, she (and the publisher) most certainly have trademarks as well as copyrights in the characters. "Famous" trademarks are especially fraught with peril.

I definitely recommend Rob Walling & Mike Taber's Micropreneur Academy (www.micropreneur.com). If the book resonates with you, the Academy is a deep dive into the principles that the book outlines. Best investment I've made in the last year.