# Writing about true events: legal liabilities?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-about-true-events-legal-liabilities/134342>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 29, 2002, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-about-true-events-legal-liabilities/134342 "2002-10-29T03:22:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 2002, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-about-true-events-legal-liabilities/134342/1 "2002-10-29T03:22:46Z")

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I’m considering writing a manga or comic about true events that some friends were involved in. These events involved activism, local politics, and court actions against a company.

What liabilities would I encounter? Could I be sued merely for recounting events that already exist in public record and newspaper archives? Can I use the real peoples’ and organizations’ names? How about likenesses of faces and locations?

Would I be better off fictionalising all the names and locations, but keeping the sequence of events?

How do documentary writers handle this?

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**Author:** ![happyheathen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5e925/32.png) [@happyheathen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/happyheathen)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 2002, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-about-true-events-legal-liabilities/134342/2 "2002-10-29T04:44:51Z")

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rule 1: The “truth” is not libel

corollary to rule 1: “truth” is defined by a court.

if your story would cast anyone in anything that might, conceivably, be construed as a negative light, see a lawyer.

see: defamation, intentional infliction of mental/emotional distress, harrassment, public ridicule, etc.

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**Author:** ![Beagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@Beagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beagle)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 2002, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-about-true-events-legal-liabilities/134342/3 "2002-10-29T05:17:50Z")

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> [@](#):
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> How about likenesses of faces and locations?

This could be a problem, almost certainly. Not my specialty though.