I am writing my own self-help religion book with my own personal advice and opinions. Is it necessary that I have to put a disclaimer for some reason? I am not using any copyright work. Therefore, should I put a disclaimer or not so I don't have to deal with people suing me because they didn't like my personal advices and opinion?
Honestly, I don't know. I've never read or considered writing such a book. But I am sure there are at least a few out there. Try the library and see what they have, and if there was a disclaimer included. That'd be a place to at least start. Good luck. Terry
What kind of disclaimer do you think you need? If you're in the US, you are allowed to have any religious belief you want as long as you never do anything like sacrificing another person to [insert whichever god here]. I mean, you won't have any issues unless you start writing "Religious group Y is full of morons and Religious group 6 is even worse etc etc" or say anything that damages the reputation of perhaps your local priest or someone along those lines.
Disclaimers mean very little. If you are treading on someone's toes, in a legal sense, a disclaimer won't save you from being sued. If you aren't, then none is needed anyway. If you are concerned about your legal position, you should consult a literary attorney rather than a bunch of strangers on a forum. If we give bad advice, you can't sue us either.
There is a big difference between a self-help book and a spirituality book that uses your own personal experiences as the guts. In a way, it is like an autobiographical book depending how much of your own personal experience you put in. The fine line is how much advice you give or what kind of instructions you give. As long as you are not advocating that someone do something drastic or radical I can't see why anyone would want to sue you. Do Heavy metal lyrics cause violence? Of course not, but people still try to censor music. I say consult a legal rep if possible like Cog says, but honestly if they did try to take legal actions against you they really don't have much of a leg to stand on unless you give clear instructions on performing something illegal or harmful. good luck on the book
Disclaimers aren't totally useless, but in the context that you're talking about, yeah, they wouldn't do much. There is only one case I know of where they are helpful. When they are using racist language in it historical context or something like that, and they are reminding the reader that it is realistic for the character to use such langauge and assure them that it is not reflective of the writer's beliefs.
