Famous Dead People

[MClark]

Hi,

What are the rules about including famous dead people in your story?

I suppose getting permission from the heirs is the safest way, but suppose you say something critical?  Did Alan Moore get permission to include Richard Nixon in Watchmen? Did Farmer get permission from the heirs to have Herman Goehring in Riverworld, or Samuel Clemens?

I guess that as long as you don't say anything untrue it isn't libelous.

And I suppose most heirs would prefer not to give free publicity to writers they don't support and will ignore the story.

Any thoughts?

[Snowleopard]

I would think (can't say for sure) that if you're just mentioning the name of the person and info that's in
the public domain you wouldn't have to ask permission.
If you were using the famous person as a major character then you'd probably have to ask.
Again this is just what I think - I don't know for sure.

[LizW65]

A lot of it probably depends on how long the person has been dead--for instance, if you wanted to use Shakespeare or Alexander the Great as a character, it's unlikely that anyone would come forward and get you to cease and desist.  However, if the person is only recently dead and still has many active family members, I expect you'd have to tread more carefully.

[Snowleopard]

It's that public domain thing.  Shakespeare and Alexander are in the Public Domain but
Nixon and his ilk probably aren't.  I want to say it takes 100 years before something is in
the Public domain but I'm not totally sure on that.

[Starbeam]

One point-Nixon was still alive when Alan Moore wrote Watchmen.  Also, it may depend on the celebrity.  There are a lot of stories with Elvis as a character, in some form or other.  Some that outright say who he is, others that only allude to it.  I also want to say I seem to recall reading a collection of shorts where they were all supernatural stories featuring Elvis.  Or it could've just been a coincidence that there were at least 2 shorts in a collection.  One thing to try is to look up current authors who do this kinda thing, Charlaine Harris comes to mind, or maybe try asking an editor or agent on Twitter, or other social media.  Chances are, though, that even they may not know.

[MClark]

Thanks for the replies.

It looks like the question doesn't have a simple answer. I  suspect much of it depends on what you write and how much the heirs want to push the issue.

I'll keep looking around for the answer and if I find anything definitive I'll post it here. 

[Quantus]

Thanks for the replies.

It looks like the question doesn't have a simple answer. I  suspect much of it depends on what you write and how much the heirs want to push the issue.

I'll keep looking around for the answer and if I find anything definitive I'll post it here.

Just to muddy the waters, there are also certain laws protecting parody and other such uses of a persona, real or fictional.  Its how all those political cartoons get away with it.  But I dont know any of the intricacies of the actual Laws, or if they are a Federal or State thing.  I suspect you are correct in that it depends on What you actually write and how strongly the heirs feel about it.  If you make the person a heroic badass that recycles and saves kittens from trees, they probably won't care so much...

[jesster64]

Stuart Kaminsky uses a lot of dead people in his Toby Peters mysteries, which are pretty good. He weaves famous people like mae west and howard hughes into his stories. It saves a lot of time because you allready know the characters without a lot of backstory.

[OZ]

Farmer's Riverworld books included a lot of famous dead people but I think Clemens was probably the most recent. Are you talking about the long dead or the recently dead?

[MClark]

Hi all,

I asked a writer friend of mine this question and she pointed me to this blog post:

http://www.rightsofwriters.com/2011/01/can-you-be-sued-for-libeling-dead-john.html?mid=54

Another blog post she mentioned was this one:

http://www.rightsofwriters.com/2010/12/could-i-be-liable-for-libel-in-fiction.html

(Note item 5 on how you cannot libel the dead.)

Obviously this isn't the same as asking a lawyer, but both blogs look respectable - and the first one gives enough links you could theoretically look it up yourself at a local state law school library.