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serralinda73 t1_j6e687x wrote

It depends. If the real person can prove that you included private, secret, personal information that you should not be airing to the public and you are only "disguising" it under the umbrella as fiction, then you are breaching their rights to privacy, you may be slandering (libeling?) I forget which is which) them.

Usually, when fiction includes a real person and facts about their life, the author has to include sources, either as a general bibliography or also with footnotes. If you're just making stuff up and happen to get it right...that's accidental and not your problem, as long as you can show that you had no prior knowledge about the facts/truth.

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st-julien t1_j6e83y4 wrote

Slander is spoken.

Libel is written.

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ohboop t1_j6eal8j wrote

Something that helped me remember it even more (as in, in addition to your more helpful hint, lol) was making the connection to romance languages: livre, or libros for book in French or Spanish.

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st-julien t1_j6eba7b wrote

Maybe that's why I remember it easily. Spanish is my native language, not English.

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ohboop t1_j6ej7t4 wrote

I bet it helps at least! It wasn't until a native French speaker pointed that out to me that I was finally able to remember once and for all.

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st-julien t1_j6eobny wrote

Also, I worked for a newspaper a long time ago. You have to be very familiar with the concept of libel if you work at a major daily.

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ohboop t1_j6ep7v6 wrote

Well now I just feel like you've buried the lede here.

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st-julien t1_j6esvg8 wrote

I was going to open with that but your mention of Spanish gave me a hook. :D

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Jack-Campin t1_j6g0mrs wrote

Depends on your local legal system. Doesn't work like that in Scotland.

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