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Jun. 9th, 2009 07:55 pmNo matter what the outcome of the renaming issue thread on TR - it does open up an interesting legal question, right?
I never really thought about it before, though I googled the names and titles of my main characters and villains, at least, to make sure they weren't "taken" in real life (not my secondary characters, though) - but I didn't really think anyone would take legal action because their name and / or title happens to appear in a work of fiction. One could argue about the context they appear in, of course - no one would like to have their name mentioned in connection with, say, child murder; even in a work of fiction.
Now of course I googled the name of one of my secondary characters in my current story, and that title really exists (though in my story he's a viscount while in real life he's an earl).
BTW, that threatening comment appears rather weird to me; as someone said on the board the woman's post doesn't look as if she's really acting on his lordship's behalf.
I never really thought about it before, though I googled the names and titles of my main characters and villains, at least, to make sure they weren't "taken" in real life (not my secondary characters, though) - but I didn't really think anyone would take legal action because their name and / or title happens to appear in a work of fiction. One could argue about the context they appear in, of course - no one would like to have their name mentioned in connection with, say, child murder; even in a work of fiction.
Now of course I googled the name of one of my secondary characters in my current story, and that title really exists (though in my story he's a viscount while in real life he's an earl).
BTW, that threatening comment appears rather weird to me; as someone said on the board the woman's post doesn't look as if she's really acting on his lordship's behalf.
