Can I be sued for writing a memoir that contains living people if I do not use their likeness, name or location?
Anyone can sue anyone for anything. That said, you would have to be naming names, and the information would have to be slanderous and/or false for the person to have even a snowball’s chance in Hell of winning.For example: In “Shoeless Joe” by W.P. Kinsella, the reclusive writer in the book is J.D. Salinger. Kinsella needed no permission to include him as a public figure in a work of written fiction. When the book was brought to the screen as “Field of Dream”, however, Salinger refused permission for them to use his name & likeness on screen. Such permission is needed for films. So James Earl Jones’ character, Terence Mann was born.If you change names, etc. to avoid such possible problems, your disclaimer before the Forward will be different than if you use real names, professions, etc.) Examples here: 6 Copyright Page Disclaimers to Copy and Paste Into Your Book).The bottom line is always CONSULT AN ATTORNEY. You will need to let them know how you wish to use them in your book in order to get the best advice and any caveats.But here’s one best-selling author’s take on the whole thing — and something I took to heart as I wrote my first book:“You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.”(Anne Lamott, “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”)
How do I avoid being sued for libel when writing a fictionalized account of my life?
Wait a minute. If the book is about your life, then how is it "fictionalized"? Do you mean it's going to be a fanciful account of what your life might have been like? Or do you mean it's the true story of your life, with a few details and names changed here and there? The extent to which your book will be fictional is going to make all the difference. If the book is pure fiction, say as much in a disclaimer at the beginning of the book, and you should be fine. But if you describe a character in such a way as to suggest to others that you're referring to a real person in your life, and the people who read your book and know that person would recognize him or her upon reading what you write, then you need to be sure to remain 100% truthful or there could be trouble. In short, since you say the book is to be fiction, your best bet to avoid a lawsuit is to ensure your readers understand the book is fiction, and to not include any characters with any resemblance to real people in your life. For more information about this from a reliable source, see First Amendment Center .
How do I avoid getting sued for libel/slander? I'm an author writing a memoir, involving interactions of a private nature with people.
Obviously I do not know what you are going to publish, but as a complete amateur may I suggest that what matters is which country or countries the book will be published in. Libel laws differ, and so do the potential risk and profit from suing you. As your publishers will not wish to be joined in a suit they will probably be alert to actionable content; you could get advice from a libel lawyer in the relevant jurisdiction if you are worried (and wealthy) enough.
When writing a book, is it okay to mention/make references to famous celebrities, movies, other writers, songs, copyrighted stuff and related things?
When you are writing a book, during the actual writing process itself, yes all of these are allowed.It is publishing the book that can triggering copyright infringement, libel, and other legal issues.This is why publishers have lawyers that go over the entire book and clear all of the content. This is a very important legal service that publishers offer, and something that self-publishers often fail to be aware of.In general, yes, you can actually use real names in passing. Names of movies, writers, songs, books, celebrities, etc. What you cannot do is use actual copyrighted material: an excerpt from a book, lyrics from a song, dialog from a movie. But names do not enjoy copyright protection. In fact, it would be silly if they did since you could refer to anything in writing if they did. Nominative use is when you just refer to something by name and that is totall allowed.But you cannot go beyond that and use someone’s character. Sure, you can say “His hair looked like Harry Potter’s hair.” (By that way, don’t. That’s horrible writing.) But you can’t actually have the character Harry Potter in your book. That would be copyright infringement.And you run into all sorts of potential for libel if you include real people doing things they did not do in real life. Sure, mentioning them is okay. But turning them into a character in your book is a touchy subject. Disclaimers can help, but are undercut by using a real name of a real celebrity that is obviously a representation of that person.And, if your book is non-fiction then you must have a lawyer go over the book to look for libelous statements. There really isn’t anyway to make that risk safe otherwise.But again, this is the publisher’s headache, not yours. Unless you center your book on a fictional representation of a celebrity, making it essentially nonpunishable, you really aren’t negatively impacting your chances of finding a publisher by having a song quote or referencing Google or having a character carry around an iPad.Meanwhile, be aware that there are books like this out there:Shatnerquake“After a reality bomb goes off at the first ever ShatnerCon, all of the characters ever played by William Shatner are suddenly sucked into our world. Their mission: hunt down and destroy the real William Shatner. Featuring: Captain Kirk, TJ Hooker, Denny Crane, Priceline Shatner, Cartoon Kirk, Rescue 9-1-1 Shatner, singer Shatner, and many more.”
Is it illegal to write books with same title and characters the book is no longer being written by author?
Okay, there is obviously a lot of copyright advice being given from people who don't know about it :-) Let's break down your question: Is it illegal to write a book using the title of a book already written? No. Titles are not copyrightable, so if you wanted to write a book called "The Princess Diaries" or "The Last Juror" or "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe," you could. Cover art IS copyrightable, though, including the way the font of the title is written. However: " . . . using the same characters . . ." Probably not a good idea. Characters in a book or movie, along with a series/brand title like "Star Trek" or "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," are able to be trademarked. This isn't the same as copyright - while the purpose of copyright is to keep someone from stealing your work outright, the purpose of a trademark is to avoid "brand confusion." That means you can't make your own books based on Captain Picard and the Starship Enterprise, even if you don't call them "Star Trek," because a reasonable person might get confused between your book and a book licenced by Star Trek (and therefore earning the Star Trek trademark holders money). So although you could name your book the same thing as a book already written (although not including any trademarked parts of the name, like a movie series title), you probably couldn't use the same characters or the same setting, and you couldn't make your book's title in the same color or font as the original, and you couldn't make the artwork the same or even similar. If you tried anyway, you would a) have a really, really hard time getting it published, and b) probably receive a "cease and desist" letter from the holder of the trademark. This means they give you a reasonable amount of time (usually about a month) to remove whatever you wrote from the Internet, bookstores, or wherever, and to give them any money you made from it. These requests are expensive to fight, so even if they wouldnt' win a lawsuit, it's usually cheaper just to take down your work. This does happen to a lot of fanfiction authors - if the trademark holders don't defend their trademark by asking everyone else to stop using it, a judge could rule their trademark isn't valid anymore.
When writing a roman a clef novel, what guidelines should be heeded to avoid being sued for slander by the "disguised" person depicted?
Fortunately you have some resources available online to help guide you:Defamation Law Made Simple | Nolo.comWhen to Sue for Defamation, Slander, and LibelIf you’re really worried about it, then after you write your novel you may want to consult with an attorney. But generally speaking, in the United States anyway, free speech is still a powerful, supported concept so unless you’re deliberately trying to damage someone, chances are you’ll be safe. Be true to your vision of your novel.Changing names, places, and some details (like if the person is the owner of a soup company, you can make them the owner of a company that manufactures a non-existent product like vat-grown human hair or whatever) will help. Be sure that you don’t change the details to sound like another person! Some Google searches for your new names and places will help you make sure that there isn’t a Ben Franklin who’s made the news lately with a scandal or that there really isn’t a Gohome, Wyoming.
What is the best way to deal with copyright infringement for a self-published book? My husband and I worked for years on this volume. Since it has quite a limited market, even a few illegal copies are cause for concern.
Traditionally, publishing houses are responsible for e-book piracy prevention and protecting their copyrighted content. If you self-publish, that responsibility is largely yours. There are a number of ways to proactively protect your content and try to get compensated if it’s already been stolen. Use major search engines such as Google and Bing to scan for your content. If you find it has been stolen, contact the site host as well as the search engine to get it taken down. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) specifically provides protections for copyrighted material on digital platforms. If you find your material has been posted online without permission, you can issue a DMCA takedown notice. This should prevent the more casual piracy that’s rampant online. If that doesn’t work, you may need to consider a lawsuit to protect your copyrighted work. A successful lawsuit can provide injunctive relief and statutory damages that should hopefully deter future IP theft.But the best solution of all is preventing your self-published from unauthorized copying and distribution in the first place. Employing Digital Rights Management (DRM) protections, such as social DRM (or watermarking) or industry-standard encryption from Adobe, offer you the highest level of security against piracy.You can read more about DRM protection for e-books on the EditionGuard Blog.EditionGuard is an industry leader in e-book digital rights management solutions. By leveraging industry standard technologies like Adobe Content Server, digital watermarking and controlled distribution, EditionGuard allows e-book publishers and authors to secure their content from piracy at affordable rates. Click here to sign up for a 30-day free trial and see how EditionGuard can protect your profits.