: Depicting inaccurate information about real organisations in fiction? Could it be a problem (legal one) if in a fiction novel, I depict… Law enforcement/military organisation with quite a few
Could it be a problem (legal one) if in a fiction novel, I depict…
Law enforcement/military organisation with quite a few details about their organisational structure in an inaccurate manner.
Not naming any specific company or brand name, but rather depicting an entire industry in bad light (For eg: making claims that the insurance industry is in general prone to misrepresentation of facts while pitching their products) or more specifically stereotyping the industry behaviour.
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Could it be a problem from legal point of view? That's a question for law.SE. You might be able to protect yourself with a standard All persons fictitious disclaimer in the preface:
The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this novel are fictitious. No identification with actual persons, places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred.
but you should ask a lawyer for details.
But no matter what's legal, keep in mind what this means for your work. When you portray a real-world organization or industry in a way which is simply untrue, then that's a sign that you didn't do proper research before you wrote.
In the best case, the reader will know more about the subject than you do, realize you are just making stuff up, will feel disappointed by your general lack of effort, greatly lower their suspension of disbelief and see your whole work more sceptical.
In the worst case, the reader will believe your depictions, think they actually represent the reality and get a completely false impression of the subject you write about. This is deliberately misinforming your audience, which is simply irresponsible.
Think about how much you know about, say, police procedure. Likely most of what you believe to know about the daily work of police officers actually comes from fictional media. What if all that media depicted police work completely wrong? Would you realize that? What if it gave you a completely different impression of the thousands of people who work in the police force? What if you treat them completely differently than they actually deserve because of their wrong fictional representation?
So please be responsible and think about the many real people you indirectly write about when you depict a non-fictional organization.
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