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A Rant

I haven't ranted at you in a while. Here's a rant about how I hate computer problems.

Real Things in Unreal Stories

Legal Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer; this isn't professional legal advice.

Can you use celebrities in your stories? To a point. But celebrities have something called the Right of Publicity which means that other can't use their likenesses for commercial purposes. It might be fun to create your own celebrities for your stories, that way you have the power to make them say or do things later on that might get you in trouble if you had a real celebrity doing or saying them.

What about trademarked brand names? Again, to a point, as long as you're not disparaging the item, and you're not using a trademarked name to mean something generic.

I talk about a few ways I got around using trademarked things in my stories.

Publaw.com is a good site to read further on these and other legal matters involved in the publishing biz.