Playing Chicken with the Lawyers

[Harryasaboy]

Should I say "He inserted the chocolate bar all the way to the letter "Y" before it broke off." Or can I say the name of the famous confectionery company based in Pennsylvania?

Should I say "The referee's cock spurted cum all over the three letters of her uniform." Or can I say the name of a school located in Southern California?

Are we safe from lawyers from hell or not?

 

[sr71plt]

You can say Hersey if you want. Disney has done a bang-up job of overselling how brand names cannot be used in writing fiction.

 

[Boxlicker101]

You can mention brand names, but be sure to capitalize them. You should also spell them correctly.

 

[Hypoxia]

Lawyers will not bother you at LIT. You are not worth their trouble. Money cannot be extracted from you.

I obscure people, places, and products not because I fear retaliation but to distance myself from my past. I may mention but not name a small coastal California university town and let readers guess whether I mean Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Eureka/Arcata, or some invention -- because I don't want to be tracked down there. Otherwise I name actual colleges.

I specifically list clothing, camera, food, and musical instrument brand names. I name real artists and some real people (but usually not sexually). I obscure other actual people to hide my IRL links to them; I don't want to drop those names. But much of my storytelling is reality-based and reality requires revelation. So go ahead, write Hershey and USC and Trump Towers and Disney World and Hohner. They've been done before.

 

[i_would]

Many of the above mentioned names/places have no meaning whatsoever to people who have never been there, or who are not from the USA. I for one don't care too much about brand names, or whether they're real or not. Use them when it suits your story, leave them out otherwise.

I tend to not name places, only referring to them as "the city" or so. The city/town/whatever where the story is set. Like so many people, I also only know New York from movies or the TV news, and San Francisco from the Mythbusters. The name doesn't matter. I prefer to build the town in a way it works nicely with the story.

When it comes to using actual names or brands, this should generally be OK if it's done in a pretty neutral manner. Apple can't complain about stories referring to an iPhone being used to shoot some nudes.

The "celebrities" category gets a bit more hairy, as that's real people being placed in often degenerating situations. Not that I write there, but it's a bit of a case of "first you'll have to track me down, after that good luck with cross-boundary judicial action as US law which Literotica presumably falls under, doesn't apply here".

 

[Hypoxia]

Many of the above mentioned names/places have no meaning whatsoever to people who have never been there, or who are not from the USA. I for one don't care too much about brand names, or whether they're real or not. Use them when it suits your story, leave them out otherwise.

Local or national brands can indeed be puzzling but international brands like Nike, Nikon, Ford, Dior, Hohner should be recognizable.

I tend to not name places, only referring to them as "the city" or so. The city/town/whatever where the story is set. Like so many people, I also only know New York from movies or the TV news, and San Francisco from the Mythbusters. The name doesn't matter. I prefer to build the town in a way it works nicely with the story.

The locale is a character in some of my stories. Certain tales can only be told in New York or San Francisco or Antigua Guatemala. I've written journal-type travel tales that necessarily involve real locations. Yes, sometimes a precise locale is unnecessary; generic towns are fine in many cases. But I like the positive comments from locals when I nail a real setting.

The "celebrities" category gets a bit more hairy, as that's real people being placed in often degenerating situations. Not that I write there, but it's a bit of a case of "first you'll have to track me down, after that good luck with cross-boundary judicial action as US law which Literotica presumably falls under, doesn't apply here".

I'm not sure LIT's rules re: celeb sex are due to legal fears or merely the way Laurel like things. The only "celeb-sex" I've written is of folks who were scientific celebs 125 years ago -- and their tale needs specific locations. You'll generally have no problems with real recognizable people so long as they're not involved sexually. I can mention a guy encountering an actual celeb as long as he doesn't fuck her. Otherwise I'd change her name.

 

[sr71plt]

All that is sort of irrelevant to the point. It's not against the law to use brand names, real places, real businesses in fiction. And even those who are aggressive about going after use of trademarked Brand names (like Tinkerbell) when the use is a threat against the trademark profitability (making Tinkerbell a promiscuous drag queen, for instance), they won't go after someone who is hard to track down and who isn't really damaging them in any financial sense--or who isn't making money off the malicious use of the trademarked name. As noted on the thread, though, you need to render brand names as trademarked. Here's one place where you can find a list of trademarked names: http://applications.inta.org/apps/trademark_checklist/?link=A.

 

[NoJo]

I think it's best to put copyright and trademark symbols in your story, particularly when describing cunnilingus™ or "I'm cummmingg...." © 2000-216, Literotica.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Local or national brands can indeed be puzzling but international brands like Nike, Nikon, Ford, Dior, Hohner should be recognizable.

The locale is a character in some of my stories. Certain tales can only be told in New York or San Francisco or Antigua Guatemala. I've written journal-type travel tales that necessarily involve real locations. Yes, sometimes a precise locale is unnecessary; generic towns are fine in many cases. But I like the positive comments from locals when I nail a real setting.

I'm not sure LIT's rules re: celeb sex are due to legal fears or merely the way Laurel like things. The only "celeb-sex" I've written is of folks who were scientific celebs 125 years ago -- and their tale needs specific locations. You'll generally have no problems with real recognizable people so long as they're not involved sexually. I can mention a guy encountering an actual celeb as long as he doesn't fuck her. Otherwise I'd change her name.

We can include real celebs in a sexual situation. I have stories about fucking Jennifer Lopez in her ass and other similar sex acts with other famous women. Lit makes sure these stories all include a disclaimer stating they are fiction and cite a court case (Jerry Falwell against Hustler/Larry Flint) Since there is no possibility of the story being true, there is no liability for Lit. or the author.

ETA: In fact, Kim Kardashian even pirated a story of mine to use in her website.

 

[sr71plt]

I think it's best to put copyright and trademark symbols in your story, particularly when describing cunnilingus™ or "I'm cummmingg...." © 2000-216, Literotica.

We've been over this before. Ever since the United States finally ratified the 1886 Berne Convention in 1989 (yes, more than 100 years late), using the copyright symbol is a declaration that you formally registered the copyright. If you didn't, use the symbol, and it gets to the courts, using the symbol is going to get you rapped on the head by the judge and won't help your case a bit. You have made a false claim.

 

[NoJo]

ETA: In fact, Kim Kardashian even pirated a story of mine to use in her website.

Whodathunk she had so few scruples

 

[Boxlicker101]

Originally Posted by Boxlicker101:

ETA: In fact, Kim Kardashian even pirated a story of mine to use in her website.

Whodathunk she had so few scruples

The odd thing was the story was mostly about JLo.

 

[TamLin01]

Ever read "Jennifer Government"? A favorite book from my '20s, about how a completely privatized society owned by industry ends up in a literal market war, with brand name companies executing terrorist attacks against each other (or, sometimes, customers, including their own).

Almost all of the companies cited were real: Nike, McDonald's, Boeing, etc. Right at the front of the book there's an amusing disclaimer by the author clarifying that all of the uses of trademarked company names are satirical and done without permission (and also that he's writing this disclaimer under duress from his lawyers).

Well, he didn't get sued. So, long story short, of course you can use a company's name. How bizarre would pop culture storytelling be if you couldn't?

 

[GoldenCojones]

I use brand names when it is important to the story:

"He took me to McDonalds! Fucking McDonalds! The cheap perv! So of course the most he got from me was a fucking blowjob. You got to take me to Burger King if you want to fuck," she said with a smile on her face.

 

[Blind_Justice]

Why do I have to play chicken with the lawyers? I'd rather play "hide the sausage" with a hot lady attorney or two...

 

[TxRad]

Why do I have to play chicken with the lawyers? I'd rather play "hide the sausage" with a hot lady attorney or two...

I thought you knew, using the whole chicken makes it kinky.

As with any corporate thing, free advertising is always welcome.

 

[Hypoxia]

I thought you knew, using the whole chicken makes it kinky.

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, right? Right?

But a whole chicken in the bush gets messy.

Especially when it's still alive.

 

[sr71plt]

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, right? Right?

But a whole chicken in the bush gets messy.

Especially when it's still alive.

Or if it had been fried in a lot of grease.