From Paris With... Not Love
Posted: March 18th, 2010, 7:55 am
Hi all,
Saw this in The Guardian and thought it comment-worthy.
Crime writer Lalie Walker is in hot water after setting her latest thriller around a famous Parisian fabric store, Montmatre. The owners of the apparently well-loved company that runs the place are suing her for defamation -- because they feel her story shows the fabric company in a less than favourable light. The story involves a killer at the store.
My understanding is that Montmatre is somewhat of a famous Parisian landmark and a well-known French institution. Obviously this court case raises serious concerns for writers -- if you have to seek out approval in advance before setting your novel anywhere recognisable, we may all have to become fantasy authors. As is pointed out in the article, Dan Brown suffered no legal consequences after writing about a murder at the Louvre in The Da Vinci Code.
Interested to hear opinions on this... can you really be defaming a place by setting what it is very clearly a piece of fiction in and around it?
What says the Bransfordsphere?
The original article is here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/ma ... int-pierre
Saw this in The Guardian and thought it comment-worthy.
Crime writer Lalie Walker is in hot water after setting her latest thriller around a famous Parisian fabric store, Montmatre. The owners of the apparently well-loved company that runs the place are suing her for defamation -- because they feel her story shows the fabric company in a less than favourable light. The story involves a killer at the store.
My understanding is that Montmatre is somewhat of a famous Parisian landmark and a well-known French institution. Obviously this court case raises serious concerns for writers -- if you have to seek out approval in advance before setting your novel anywhere recognisable, we may all have to become fantasy authors. As is pointed out in the article, Dan Brown suffered no legal consequences after writing about a murder at the Louvre in The Da Vinci Code.
Interested to hear opinions on this... can you really be defaming a place by setting what it is very clearly a piece of fiction in and around it?
What says the Bransfordsphere?
The original article is here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/ma ... int-pierre