: Re: What are my legal rights if somebody writes a book about me without my consent? So, I just discovered a person I knew in college has written a book. This book is titled as fiction. But after

I'm not a lawyer, so the views expressed here are those of a layman, and writer.

Your situation appears to resemble the one in "The Red Hat Club" litigation, which the plaintiff won.

This does not appear to be a situation where the author created a "generic" character that somewhat resembles you: female, college-educated, from a certain geography, etc. It seems more like a real character that is being used "fictitiously." If so, the author is treading on thin ice.

One of the tests I use is, are there 100, or better yet, 1000 people who could be the inspiration for the fictitious character? Or is she described so exactly that there could only be one person (or a handful of people) in the world who fit the description? The latter appears to be the case.

Only a lawyer can tell you what your rights and remedies are, but as a potential juror (i.e. finder of fact), my sense is that certain lines have been crossed. That is to say that the book is really (and unfortunately) "about you" and not just a "take-off" on a small part of you.

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: Re: What are my legal rights if somebody writes a book about me without my consent? So, I just discovered a person I knew in college has written a book. This book is titled as fiction. But after

More posts by @Jennifer354

: How much information should a narrative sentence contain ,from experience on average, for good readability? While randomly browsing, i noticed fiction writings contain much more comas in their sentences

: How do I develop skills at writing and planning plots and characters? I currently earn a little extra money by doing freelance journalism on the side, in addition to working a day job. This

: What are the correct terms regarding (this literary) technique? An example comes from a cartoon where there is a woman talking to her boyfriend. There's a "cloud" that comes from her mouth,

: What exactly is "fair comment?" From what I understand, truth is a defense against a charge of libel. More to the point, I've been told that a statement need not be true if it represents

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