Celebrities & Fan Fiction Stories

[Shady_Lady]

I have written a few stories over a wide range of genres but this is not a genre I venture into that frequently. In fact I have only written one story involving Angelina Jolie and Keira Knightly. I am in the process of writing a story involving Kristen Stewart and a thought occurred to me..."Can I get sued?"

Does anyone have any idea what the legal ramifications are of using real people in a story, particularly when they are famous?

 

[StillStunned]

I seem to remember Lit adding a disclaimer at the top of C&FF stories along the lines of "we believe this is fair use, based on such-and-such case law".

 

[SimonDoom]

The short answer: almost certainly no, you are not at risk of being sued.

There are three different bodies of law at issue here: copyright, the right of publicity, and defamation.

Copyright is not an issue in the case of celebrity fiction, although it is in the case of fanfiction. Fanfiction is when you use fictional characters in the (often copyrighted) fictional works of authors. That's not what you are talking about. You're talking about celebrity fiction--using real people in made-up stories.

Celebrities do not have copyrights in their names or likelnesses, because they are not authors (unless they write autobiographies, in which case they have copyrights in the text of their autobiographies).

Fair use is a doctrine of copyright law. It does not apply to your question.

In general, the right of publicity prevents you from using the name or likeness of a famous person for a commercial purpose, like selling a product. If you make and sell toy fighter jets, and you put Tom Cruise's face on your packaging, you will get sued for violating his right of publicity. You will probably lose.

This doesn't apply to fictional stories. The use of a celebrity name in a fictional story is not a commercial use, even if you make money from the sale of the story. There are countless fictional stories that use the names and characters of real people in them.

The final issue is defamation. If you write a story about Tom Cruise that disparages his character, and the story is written in a way that it might reasonably lead people to think you are telling a true story, then maybe Tom Cruise would have a cause of action against you for defamation. But this is unlikely, because my guess is that it's obvious that your stories are fiction stories and nobody is going to think that they are true.

So, you're probably fine.

 

[ChuckWolf]

Also, you could always just change the name and have the character(s) based on real celebrities.

That's what I did in my story, Cosplay And Celebrity Cougars!

 

[Wifetheif]

Even celebrity fan fiction based on fiction can get you in trouble. I had to change the name of my heroine in a bit of Honey West fan fiction because of sexual violence directed at the character. For those of you familiar with the novels, that is their very point! In one Honey ends up in the hands of bordello owners in Tiajuana where she is drugged, stripped down and barely escapes essentially naked. In another one she is knocked out, stripped, and hung from a tree in just her lacy panties. In another one she loses her bikini in the surf and is rescued naked by a hunky surfer dude. You get the idea. It was a TV showw starring Anne Francis BUT no way was early 60s television going to be as explicit as the novels. I thought it hilarious that I could not portray the character accurately. So Honey West became Honey East. You can see the results here: https://www.literotica.com/s/the-case-of-the-nude-portraitist

 

[MyBareTorso]

Geez, if they could sue for that, Mariah Carey could take me to the cleaners!!

 

[Shady_Lady]

I had to change the name of my heroine in a bit of Honey West fan fiction because of sexual violence directed at the character.

Why did you have to change the name, did someone force you?

 

[Bramblethorn]

Why did you have to change the name, did someone force you?

Literotica doesn't generally allow non-con in the Fanfic/Celebrities section. I suspect the reason for that is more the "celebrities" side of things - publishing fantasies about the rape of a real person is the kind of thing that attracts unwelcome attention - but it seems to be applied to the whole category. And to be fair, a lot of fanficcers don't make a strong distinction between screen characters and the actors who play them.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I currently have six stories in my "Before They Were Stars" series about famous women and their sexual exploits before they became well known. I do a lot of research and include details that make the fictional accounts plausible based upon the celebrities' real life prior to fame.

Some of the reader feedback gets interesting depending on how fans like or dislike the particular celebrity portrayed as being involved in certain sexual acts. (Angie Harmon and a glory hole, Deborah Norville giving a blow job to her boss, for examples)

Oh, and you can't use any real images of the celebrity for covers, etc. I used AI-generated similes for my cover and it was approved.

 

[Shady_Lady]

Oh, and you can't use any real images of the celebrity for covers, etc.

Interesting, what about where there is a Creative Commons licence (as defined by Google) where you can use the picture or is that Lit's rules?

 

[Shady_Lady]

Literotica doesn't generally allow non-con in the Fanfic/Celebrities section. I suspect the reason for that is more the "celebrities" side of things - publishing fantasies about the rape of a real person is the kind of thing that attracts unwelcome attention - but it seems to be applied to the whole category. And to be fair, a lot of fanficcers don't make a strong distinction between screen characters and the actors who play them.

They said in their post they were forced to change the names.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

Interesting, what about where there is a Creative Commons licence (as defined by Google) where you can use the picture or is that Lit's rules?

The only rules that matter here are Literotica's. I haven't researched others on the subject.

 

[Wifetheif]

Why did you have to change the name, did someone force you?

Changing the name of the protag got it right by Literotica.com's censor. It was either that or re-write the entire piece in a way that would not have been true to the character.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Interesting, what about where there is a Creative Commons licence (as defined by Google) where you can use the picture or is that Lit's rules?

Creative Commons can grant permission from the copyright owner (usually the photographer), depending on which specific CC license is used. But even if the photographer had released it into the public domain, that doesn't automatically give the all-clear for use, because there's still the question of personality rights:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personality_rights

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Celebrities do not have copyrights in their names or likelnesses

According to Carrie Fisher, George Lucas trademarked her "likeness" (her wording). I honestly don't know the details of that or how far it extends (and I'm certainly not trying to contradict your post in any way) but I'm just sayin' according to her and thought that it might make an interesting discussion point.

 

[SimonDoom]

According to Carrie Fisher, George Lucas trademarked her "likeness" (her wording). I honestly don't know the details of that or how far it extends (and I'm certainly not trying to contradict your post in any way) but I'm just sayin' according to her and thought that it might make an interesting discussion point.

You can trademark words, names, and images if they are used to indicate the source or origin of a product or service. I just did a quick search on the US Trademark database, and there are three word marks for "Princess Leia" in connection with the sale of fiction books, clothing, and action figures. The marks are owned by Lucasfilm. So that's probably what she's talking about. If she had tried selling products by using her Princess Leia persona, Lucasfilm would have had a legitimate claim against her. It doesn't mean she wouldn't be able independently to sell products and services under her actual name or image (if she were alive), but Lucasfilm, not Carrie Fisher, has exclusive rights in Princess Leia as a brand.

None of this has any applicability to fiction stories. Lucasfilm's trademarks give it legal power to prevent confusion in the marketplace in connection with the sale of related goods, but they don't give it the right to shut down the publication of fiction stories.