A question of copyright

[Liam]

I've searched a bit on the internet, but couldn't quite find the right answer.

Say I wanted to write a biography about a sports person. Do I need to seek their permission to write about them and publish a book? Could I just use the word 'unauthorized', or am I actually freely allowed to write about someone as long as I'm not being libelous?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Titan-Shattered-Wrestling-Confidence-Paranoia-ebook/dp/B0117TSB2G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1499189815&sr=8-1&keywords=Titan+Shattered

I'm just going to use Titan Shattered as an example - I'm assuming that no permission was sought to write about the WWF and Vince McMahon at the time, but this is a published book...what does copyright law require/not require you to do?

[Spritenaut 32]

I'm not an attorney, but I'm fairly certain you don't need permission from the subject to write about a public figure (i.e., pro athlete).  However, not getting their blessing on what you write opens the writer up to fallout: they can take you to court for invasion of privacy, defamation or libel, etc.  So it really depends on what you are writing or what your sources are.  Obviously, if you have only praise for the subject and your sources are mainly newspaper articles (i.e., previously published true statements), you have a lot less exposure.  If you portray your subject negatively or purport to be describing what they are thinking, you open yourself up.  If you write something damaging  - athlete x was a drug dealer - the subject is well within their rights to protect their reputation, so you'll need to be able to prove your account - or at least prove that your sources believed it was true and you were unable to disprove what they said.

How would you publish this book?  Self-publishing?  If you're going through a major publisher - or at least an experienced one - you can be sure they will vet the manuscript to remove anything objectionable before the book is published.  Self publishing - or using a small vanity publisher - will put the burden on you.

Honestly, this is not the place to be answering these questions.  You really need to consult an attorney versed in the publishing industry.

[Liam]

15 minutes ago, Horton Hears a Wooo!!! said:

I'm not an attorney, but I'm fairly certain you don't need permission from the subject to write about a public figure (i.e., pro athlete).  However, not getting their blessing on what you write opens the writer up to fallout: they can take you to court for invasion of privacy, defamation or libel, etc.  So it really depends on what you are writing or what your sources are.  Obviously, if you have only praise for the subject and your sources are mainly newspaper articles (i.e., previously published true statements), you have a lot less exposure.  If you portray your subject negatively or purport to be describing what they are thinking, you open yourself up.  If you write something damaging  - athlete x was a drug dealer - the subject is well within their rights to protect their reputation, so you'll need to be able to prove your account - or at least prove that your sources believed it was true and you were unable to disprove what they said.

How would you publish this book?  Self-publishing?  If you're going through a major publisher - or at least an experienced one - you can be sure they will vet the manuscript to remove anything objectionable before the book is published.  Self publishing - or using a small vanity publisher - will put the burden on you.

Honestly, this is not the place to be answering these questions.  You really need to consult an attorney versed in the publishing industry.

It isn't necessarily something I'm looking at doing. It was just more of a query.

I guess it was along the lines of turning known things - somewhat in the manner of the Titan series - into a narrative. Nothing about describing what they are thinking or motives for their actions per se, but using reports from legitimate areas (newspapers, like you mentioned) alongside personal opinion on performance (for lack of a better way of putting it) to weave a general story about them.

http://thatdifficultfirstnovel.co.uk/writing/chris-eubank-vs-steve-collins-18th-march-1995/

This is admittedly a blog I worked on, but this is just to give you a sense of what I mean. I posted this up in the boxing thread around a year ago. This is all just looking back at the situations surrounding a boxing fight, with the match effectively reviewed. If i decided to group all my boxing writing like this in one book and sell it self published via Kindle for example, it doesn't seem too dissimilar to what already gets sold on Amazon.

[OSJ]

Well, I suppose you could have asked a layman that specializes in copyright law like myself, but what the hey... You can write an un-authorized book about any subject that your heart desires. As long as you avoid defamation of character or unsubstantiated rumors. Of course, you can get (sometimes) a lot more mileage by having the co-operation of the subject, (let's face it, there are no semi-public or public persons who aren't egotistical enough to want a picture of their mug on a book (myself included). On the other hand, sometimes that co-operation turns out to be a waste of time, a buddy of mine was the first choice to write the Ric Flair bio, a New Yorker, he dutifully flew down to Charlotte and spent a week trying to get Flair to sit still for a coherent interview session. Instead, all Flair wanted to do was drive him around town to his favorite watering holes yelling "Whooo" and making the 4-Horsemen sign at passers-by. In a twenty year-old kid, such behavior might be endearing or amusing, being done by a man (then) in his fifties, it was just an irritant. My friend gave up and went home resolving to have nothing to do with athletes in general and wrestlers in particular ever again. 

Go for it, my friend. Don't worry about getting sued, it sells more copies anyway and the plaintiff is never going to be able to collect.;-)

[Liam]

24 minutes ago, OSJ said:

Well, I suppose you could have asked a layman that specializes in copyright law like myself, but what the hey... You can write an un-authorized book about any subject that your heart desires. As long as you avoid defamation of character or unsubstantiated rumors. Of course, you can get (sometimes) a lot more mileage by having the co-operation of the subject, (let's face it, there are no semi-public or public persons who aren't egotistical enough to want a picture of their mug on a book (myself included). On the other hand, sometimes that co-operation turns out to be a waste of time, a buddy of mine was the first choice to write the Ric Flair bio, a New Yorker, he dutifully flew down to Charlotte and spent a week trying to get Flair to sit still for a coherent interview session. Instead, all Flair wanted to do was drive him around town to his favorite watering holes yelling "Whooo" and making the 4-Horsemen sign at passers-by. In a twenty year-old kid, such behavior might be endearing or amusing, being done by a man (then) in his fifties, it was just an irritant. My friend gave up and went home resolving to have nothing to do with athletes in general and wrestlers in particular ever again. 

Go for it, my friend. Don't worry about getting sued, it sells more copies anyway and the plaintiff is never going to be able to collect.;-)

To be fair, I debated messaging you first

Cheers for the advice. I'll have a think about it all.

[sabremike]

I am going to pretend I am writing a Ric Flair book so I can set up an interview and get to party with him :-)

[OSJ]

2 hours ago, sabremike said:

I am going to pretend I am writing a Ric Flair book so I can set up an interview and get to party with him :-)

An excellent idea! Make sure that you bring bail money, just in case...