Presenting Fiction As Fact

[RobbyG15]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Indiana

I am authoring a story on a website that will sell better and be enjoyed by more people if it's ambiguous whether it's fact or fiction. I realize I'm probably need to explicitly state "this is fiction" somewhere on the site but I only want to do what is absolutely necessary. Any advice? Also, what kind of problems will I run into if I don't try hard enough in this capacity?

 

[justalayman]

what difference does it make? I can spin a tail all day long and as long as I do not write defamatory information about a real person, it matters not if it is fiction or non-fiction.

 

[RobbyG15]

Oh... I don't know how I left this out. I'm "selling" the work. I figured there might be some regulations since I'm profiting financially.

 

[justalayman]

Dang, that guy that wrote his life story and then hawked it on Oprah did nothing illegal. I can;t remember the name of the book or guy but it was about the drug addict and how he ended up doing so well after being so downtrodden. Then everybody found out it was all BS.

 

[RobbyG15]

That's really cool. Thanks for the advice. I just looked it up and the guy's name is James Frey and the book is "A Million Little Pieces". Wikipedia says there was a civil case stemming from this for readers who felt betrayed (yet there was only the cost of the book from about a thousand readers in damage settlements... $27,000) but absolutely no criminal proceedings.

I think I'm going to look up Paglinawan and Shaw v. Frey and see what else I can dig up in case law before I decide what to do.

 

[RobbyG15]

Alright... I think I found my answer.

Non-commercial speech is completely protected by the first amendment and I can put nearly anything I want to in my work and not identify it as untrue. Commercial speech, where I'm actively advertising/promoting my work, I need to be a lot more careful. Since I have knowledge of the contents of my work, it will be illegal to explicitly state that my work is something it's not in advertising. However, implicit untruths in advertising are given more leeway.

This makes me feel a whole lot more comfortable. Beyond following commercial and non-commercial guidelines, I think a little statement to the effect of "the contents of this site have not been verified for accuracy and I take no responsibility for this" in my clickwrap agreement will do the job.