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It is legally unproblematic to use institutions that are of a quasi-timeless nature such as the catholic church, the United States, or the egyptian pyramids. If you have "a president of the USA" i...
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#3: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2019-12-08T06:59:05Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/30121 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
by
System
·
2019-12-08T06:59:05Z (almost 5 years ago)
It is legally unproblematic to use institutions that are of a quasi-timeless nature such as the catholic church, the United States, or the egyptian pyramids. If you have "a president of the USA" in your novel, this person will be understood to be a fictional president and not the current one (unless you make it clear that he is). Institutions that are perceived to be a part of our present times, on the other hand, will always be identified with their real counterpart. If you have "Microsoft" in your novel, every reader will understand everything you write about your fictional Microsoft to be representative of your opinion of the real company. I would therefore always and without exception choose a fictional company, institution, or person.
#1: Imported from external source
by
System
·
2017-09-07T08:35:22Z (about 7 years ago)
Original score: 0