Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

50%
+0 −0
Q&A Is permission needed to use a fictitious character from another novel in my story as a point of reference?

That is a bad idea, and yes, it is possible you can be sued for damages. Other fictional characters are somebody else's work, as a general rule you cannot steal them. Those authors have the right ...

posted 5y ago by Amadeus‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-19T22:13:34Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/39113
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T09:52:06Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/39113
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T09:52:06Z (over 4 years ago)
### That is a bad idea, and yes, it is possible you can be sued for damages.

Other fictional characters are somebody else's work, as a general rule you cannot steal them. Those authors have the right to any profits earned by those characters in any way. They also have the right to control how their characters are portrayed, described, or made to act.

There are some exceptions about characters that are not well-developed, but you will have to talk to a lawyer to see what you can get away with.

If you intend to publish, agents and publishers will reject a work containing some other author's characters. You could self-publish, but then you open yourself up to a lawsuit.

Think of other fictional characters as items of property like a car, you cannot just take it and use it, **especially** to make money, without the owner's permission.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2018-09-24T22:24:58Z (over 5 years ago)
Original score: 3