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Quoting Dead People

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D

Discotrish

Guest
I'm putting together a book of humorous essays, and I'd like to quote some dead people on my back cover. (You know how hard is to get a "blurb" from the living!) I'm not worried about defaming them, but I AM worried that perhaps people who own their estates would find cause to sue, since the dead people in question would be "endorsing" my book.

I plan to clearly identify this as fictitious, but I don't want to fight a lawsuit. How does that stand legally? Does it matter how long the person has been dead? (ie quoting Mark Twain vs quoting more recently deceased Erma Bombeck) I plan to make up the quotes. It would sort of be a parody of the traditional back cover quote tradition.

Patti in FLORIDA
 


JETX

Senior Member
Talk with your publishers legal staff. Those that are clearly parodies or satirical would be protected, while those not, could be actionable.
 

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