weird question

[kellyroxanne]

i want to write a non-fiction collection of anecdotes, similar to the way david sedaris writes, i suppose. the problem is that there are many characters who will be appearing in these stories who are real, still alive, and who may be offended or need some sort permission asked of them before i can do this project. how does one handle this type of situation, does anyone know?

 

[Hugh]

Great googly moogly!!!!!!!! I have been pondering the exact same thing because my evil stepmom and stepsister are still alive and it will be obvious in the stories.

David Sedaris didn't negatively portray any living people in any of the readings I heard, so maybe he didn't have this issue.

 

[Hugh]

Hmmm, no literary lawyers on board here?

The book Reminiscences of a Stock Operator was a fictionalized account of Jesse Livermore's life, taken from a series of interviews done by Edwin Levevre for the Saturday Evening Post. The names were all changed even though it was obvious who they were. There is no standard legal disclaimer in the book, (the John Wiley & Sons trade paperback version), about it being a work of fiction though. That leads me to believe that not using the real name is enough to protect you legally, but this advice is worth what you paid for it.

 

[kellyroxanne]

haha, well thank you. i wish more people would respond!

 

[dude]

I think if you're intending it to be non-fiction, you're obligated to keep people's names accurate, but as long as you aren't revealing and/or accusing someone of breaking the law or something that might jeopardize say, a divorce settlement, no one can do anything to you.

Slander is a tricky subject in which the person who thinks they're being represented falsely would have to prove themselves otherwise which would require lots of money and honestly, the only people who care about things like are people in the media limelight. Joe Shmoe won't care, probably won't even notice and frankly, can't do anything about it anyway.