Avarice

I want to include the Omagh bomb in the north of Ireland in my book but I'm afraid that a family could take offense and sue me. Can they do that? My character would have been at the scene when the bomb exploded and would have lost his wife and son, all three of the characters would be fiction. I have a list of the people who did die and I was thinking that if my characters were fake then I dont really see how any family who did lose some one in it could sue me for damages or "making money from an atrocity."

Do any of you know anything about that? If you include your character in a real event like a terrorist attack, can you get sued?

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Verago

I don't think so, as long as you disclaim that "any likenesses to real-life persons, living or dead, is purely coinicidental."

midlandsmuse

Technically no they wouldn't but it would depend on how sensitive you were in dealing with the subject.

Why not make up a completely identical terrorist attack?

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mswietek

Avarice,

I am finding myself in a similar situation. While I don't think you would get sued, provided that your characters are fake, you could generate some anger. It depends on how you depict the scene. If you treat it as the horror it truly was, then I think you would be fine. If you depict it in some darkly humorous way, or if the book is seen as justifying (or even glorifying) the attacks, then people will get upset. Although I don't think they could sue you.

I say go ahead and include it. Though if you choose to, you need to make sure that you have all of your facts straight. People will pick up mistakes, especially if the event is recent.

Michael

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Stewart

Iain Banks' Dead Air and Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner both featured the Twin Towers attack, there are countless Holocaust novels, and plenty more. Of course you can use real events but, as has been said, its how you treat historical characters that could lead to trouble.

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Avarice

ya i was thinking that, and i intend to make it out to be the atrocity that it was, i'm not going to make fun of it or anything.

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'Sounds shopliftingly good!' - some guy.
Ah, the Luftwaffe! - Homer Simpson

Gauda

This would be a good idea. Just to stay safe.

I don't think the family would sue you, you just have to deal with it with care.

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midlandsmuse

And I would suggest getting both sides of the stories... not just the victims but why the people planted the bombs. Doesn't matter if you use it or not it will be better for you to have as good a grasp of the incident as possible.

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Saponification

Sure. Just please don't make it patriotic garbage.

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bobothegoat

I haven't seen anyone get upset about the idiotic romances set in Pearl Harbor, so why should any other historical event be any different?

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demon_

Wow, family sueing each other. That's as crazy as my avatar, and as stupid as my Sockems and Loopy stories.

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lisajane

If you weren't allowed to write such things, there would be no films/books or anything about the wars and etc.

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Dirkin

If your going to make a story about an actual event, at least get your facts straight. Do a lot of research. That's all I can really say.

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Anarkos

As I recall, it was little more than background for Dead Air.

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Stewart

Ditto The Kite Runner. Then there's John Hersey's Hiroshima, and countless throwaway "thrillers" written about IRA operations, sometimes using real events.

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