VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, [2] ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 00:53:50 06/20/02 Thu
Author: Kate
Subject: Re: ::jumps in with an Intentional Tort!!::
In reply to: angela 's message, "::jumps in with an Intentional Tort!!::" on 21:40:43 06/19/02 Wed

>Technically, an author of RPF can be sued for posting
>a story. There is an intentional tort referred to as
>Publication of Facts Placing Plaintiff in a False
>Light, and it's a sort of branch of Invasion of
>Privacy. For a Plaintiff to win such an action, they
>must prove that: 1) Defendant's conduct is
>objecitonable to a reasonable person standard; 2) A
>false impression of the Plaintiff was presented; 3)
>Statements were made knowing that it was false, or
>with a reckless disregard as to its truth or falsity;
>and, 4) Wide disemination (publication) was made of
>the false impression.

Does that mean I can sue the people who made the movie "Enigma" because they chose to omit Alan Turning from the movie? And the people who made "U-571" because they made it seem as if the Americans found the Enigma device? And Jerry Bruckheimer for "Pearl Harbor" because he included fictional characters at a historical event?

Are you getting what I'm trying to say? These are movies that are distributed to millions, sold all over the world, and yet I don't see people suing them for portraying them in a false light.

And why not? Because people see that they are movies. There's a little disclaimer at the end of them saying that this particular piece is fiction and, therefore, it's okay to publish it.

They have disclaimers. RPF writers have disclaimers. Same thing. Same standing.

And, actually, the legality of RPF isn't the topic being debated. It's whether or not you can post a recommendation of a "Buffy"/RPF story to a list that says on its main page "Any kind of story/pairing/universe is fine (even smut if it’s well written) but it’s got to have a good plot, good characters… you get the picture. "

Call me horribly irrational, but the "any kind of story/pairing/universe" pretty much tells me that anything goes. And setting a limit on that seems completely and utterly against the nature of the list.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

[> [> [> [> [> Re: ::jumps in with an Intentional Tort!!:: -- joan the english chick, 07:27:09 06/20/02 Thu

At the risk of going off on a completely irrelevant tangent, it's my understanding that people who make movies about Real People and real events take pains to get consent first. For example, the people making "A Beautiful Mind" got consent from John Nash. Now if you were to write to Britney Spears and say "may I write a sexually explicit story about you in a lesbian relationship with a vampire slayer," and she said yes, I would probably be fine with that.

And I think the difference between putting fictional characters into a real event, and putting a real person into fictional situations, should be obvious. The former does no harm to anyone. The latter does harm to the subject, and, one could argue, the audience as well. But that's a WHOLE nother debate. So I'll shut up now.

-joan the english chick


[ Edit | View ]


[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-8
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.