Question about using real places in WIPs

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AnimaDictio
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Re: Question about using real places in WIPs

Post by AnimaDictio » July 23rd, 2012, 5:21 pm

I read that Jack Daniels the other day. If I were a drinker, I'd definitely be drawn to their brand after seeing this.

LizV
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Re: Question about using real places in WIPs

Post by LizV » July 23rd, 2012, 5:55 pm

Extremely classy, yes. Not only that they were polite about it, but also that they made it clear they'd be okay with the author changing it on the next print run, rather than pulling copies already in print. I think our current copyright/trademark laws are a clusterf*ck, but JD seems to be navigating them about as gracefully as possible.

(It does rather cast doubt on the Lucas owns droid=robot, Motorola(?) owns droid=OS argument, though. Whiskey not having much in common with books, at least not once the book is written. ;) )

Amanda Elizabeth
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Re: Question about using real places in WIPs

Post by Amanda Elizabeth » July 23rd, 2012, 6:07 pm

The cover was almost a dead ringer for the bottle so I get why they wanted it changed. Though huge bravo to their legal and PR departments for being so civil and generous about it. The label design is their trademark and the book was infringing off of it.

Another similar topic, I read a hilarious tumblr called Suri's Burn Book...it's Suri Cruise making fun of different celebrities and their children as well as Katie and Tom. The girl is getting it published as a book and calling it "Suri's Burn Book" I'm surprised there was no issues about that.

JohnDurvin
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Re: Question about using real places in WIPs

Post by JohnDurvin » July 28th, 2012, 11:55 am

Corporate-owned names should be genericized to avoid legal problems, but I think previous commenters have explained that enough. Personally, I keep away from real places too, just in case I need to do something for the plot that the real world location would prevent--for example, using my hometown of Richmond, the main character has only five minutes to get from the university library to an organic grocery store?! The closest one is Ellwood Thompson, and that's half an hour away with the traffic on Broad! Or what if the plot calls for kayaking during a hurricane? There's no entries to the James on the city side, except for Belle Isle, and they close the foot-bridge during storms!

Then again, plenty of authors use utterly real depictions of the places they know, and it works out fine for them. I just enjoy world-building more than straight-up research.
Everybody loves using things as other things, right? Check out my blog at the Cromulent Bricoleur and see one hipster's approach to recycling, upcycling, and alterna-cycling (which is a word I just made up).

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