Taking a real world event and turning it into a piece of entertainment, but still wanting to lay claim to it being 'based on a true story', what is and isn't acceptable? Example: You might know her, Eva Rowe, both her parents died in a BP gas explosion in the early 2000s. She was a teenager I think and after years of battling the corporate giant she eventually got a huge settlement and everything she demanded the company to do, including releasing all the facts about the accident. If I wanted to write some kind of spin-off, girl's parents die, the company tries to scare her into settling but she won't budge on her demands, they throw more money at trying to scare her or bribe her in keeping quiet,...all the goodness that makes an entertaining court case story and corporate scandal story, but vaguely based around the actual story, would still constitute as 'based on a true story' ?
I think 'inspired by a true story' might be better from a legal standpoint. If you want to sell it commercially, the second you put real company names and people in your work, you open yourself up to all sorts of trouble.
yup!... better consult a literary attorney if you want to execute a sufficient cya plan there... otherwise, just use the basic events as inspiration for a completely fictional story...
I agree with the above posters but honestly, I won't read this story without the "based on a true story" tag or a biography tag.
