"Fictitious Persons" disclaimer vs. "Satire" disclaimer.

It doesn't matter. Real people can sue you no matter what disclaimer you put on it. If anything you're writing can be conceivably found to be offensive or insulting, you're just asking for trouble.Just make up imaginary people and don't make it look like a quick knock-off of someone real and you'll be fine.

pattmayne said:

That's the safe route, but then it's not really satire. South Park explicitly humiliates public figures on a regular basis, as do lots of other shows and publications. So I'm going to release it, and I think I'm going to use a sort-of dual disclaimer which takes the standard "fictitious persons" disclaimer and adds a mention about satire.

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Lawyer. Seriously.

Odds anyone will find and flag your self-published collection: low.

What you have to lose if they do and decide to take you to court: a whole lot. Even if you're right.

L a w y e r. That is all.

pattmayne said:

That's the safe route, but then it's not really satire. South Park explicitly humiliates public figures on a regular basis, as do lots of other shows and publications. So I'm going to release it, and I think I'm going to use a sort-of dual disclaimer which takes the standard "fictitious persons" disclaimer and adds a mention about satire.

Click to expand...

They also get sued a lot. Trey Parker and Matt Stone have been sued pretty much continually, from taking on the MPAA in 1999 to Scientology to Yelp, you name it, they have been sued a ton and have both won and lost. Of course, they can afford it and most beginning writers cannot. It's fine to say that you're going to do what you want to do, right up until you get slapped with a multi-million dollar law suit, and whether you eventually win or lose, you have to pay all of the lawyer fees along the way, even if you eventually recoup those costs. Can you do that? You need to make wise choices in life.

When it comes to how to word a disclaimer, looking at similar books will give you an idea... but all that will do is mean you have a disclaimer that looks professional. You'll still get taken to court because it's on you to prove that something is satire. Don't do this unless you can afford a lawyer and legal fees.

Celebrities/politicians are treated differently than "private citizens" when it comes to satire/libel/slander because they are public figures; people are going to say mean things about them so it's impossible to totally prevent it from happening. (In the US) The burden of proof is on the person in question to prove that what was said/written about them is untrue AND that it's harmful (what their favorite color is is not harmful, but saying that they cheat on their spouse is). HOWEVER, anyone can take you to court, for any reason, if they want to spend the time/money to file a suit. That is going to cost you time and money to deal with, either by making it go away via dismissal or settling out of court or by fighting it.

There is a very stupid lawsuit that happened about a series of fictional tropes ("omegaverse," it's very NSFW if you choose to look more into it) that was developed by fandoms as a whole. Some people wrote original stories using these tropes, and one of them sued the other for copyright infringement because of it. The books were pulled from Barnes & Noble, Amazon etc and seriously affected sales. The books still exist but they're much more difficult to get. The person didn't win the lawsuit (it would be like if Tolkien's estate claiming copyright over fantasy stories with elves, dwarves and dragons), of course, but it still caused a ton of damage and cost the other person tens of thousands of dollars to deal with it. So if you choose to go ahead as plan this is what you're risking. Please, speak to a lawyer.