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My work is fiction and I am using the real names of former US presidents and the present president. Can I legally do this?
De
Until there is a law that says, "Names are copyrighted" then I think you can.
Cool question.
How many Sandra's are there on the planet? And I do think there's a gematria influence within the name-- all names. Who owns it? Good question. Exceedingly.
Ownership of anything is becoming more of a hot topic on the internet.
I think instinctively, we realize that we don't own anything, except perhaps by giving it its importance.
The very most important thing I can think of is God. He always had a whole lot of fun with giving Himself many names and attributes. He is above all copyright and The Most Important.
Just ask yourself the question:
Why are you writing "them"? Meaning the presidents. That might help some.
My first question would be, if it is fiction why use real names?
But if you were to use them, I don't think you are going to get into any trouble.
With presidents though, be careful. You may not want to stray from their true form to far or risk having the script sound to unrealistic.
In other words don't make Lincoln out to be a pimp from detriot. Try and stay true to what you have researched from history or simply use differient names and not face the historians lashings from here.
Here is an example. I have just completed a script about a real incident that happened but I put a completly differient spin on why it happened. In this case I chose not to use real names even though the facts of the incident were true, the "fiction" leading up to it were made up.
Take forest gump for instance. They imposed him into several reel shots with former presidents. Misconstrued their words. I think you can take the gloves off on this. So long as it's not to murder an actual president. That, I'm pretty sure, will raise some red flags...
If somebody can do this, then I would imagine what you have in mind is probably fine as well.
Not necessarily. Abe Lincoln Vampire Hunter is obviously a piece of fiction. If you wrote a script or story about Hilary Clinton being a super-powered space adventurer, that would be fine. If you wrote a piece about her having a secret lesbian love affair while she was first lady, then you'd be opening a big-ass can of worms.
There are lot of real names in many of screenplays here in the simplyscrispts as characters; names like Bert, Sheldon, George, Pia, Helio, Higgs, Phil and many others...
As said Amy Winevodkabeerhouse "No, no, no... problem!"
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