# Can you copyright a lie? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 11, 2020, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-copyright-a-lie/920343 "2020-09-11T13:16:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 7
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-copyright-a-lie/920343/7 "2020-09-11T14:08:00Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > I think that ruling is incorrect but perhaps that is because of the strategy Worth’s attorneys took. The ruling discusses how the facts were not copyrightable but never addresses that there were non-facts in the book. Or it did not make it clear in the ruling that a lie presented as a fact is a “fact” from a legal perspective. If so the ruling should have addressed that. > > Suppose I write a fact-of-the day that I intentionally made up like > “Oniur Way was the first named street in the United States.” > Is that a “fact” legally even though it is purposefully not true? Is it not a work of fiction that is entitled to copyright protection? I don’t think that ruling addressed those questions. Is there a level where the amount of copyright traps would make it copyrightable? Suppose someone does not realize that our thread of “Made up trivia” was in fact made up trivia and took those “facts” and published them. Is that copyright infringement? Under copyright law (and defamation law) a fact can be either true or false. The distinction is between a fact and expression (In defamation law the distinction is between fact and opinion. Once a statement is established as a fact, you then ask whether it is true or false.) --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-copyright-a-lie/920343)._