can i be sued?

If you have a character in your film, who is based on a public figure, but you change their name slightly...this isn't the person but an example
Tom Cruise - In film he;s called Tom Bruise

And you can of poke fun at something he does......Can you be sued if the person takes exception?
 
England's "Parody Copywrite Law" was modified last year, borrowing heavily on the European Copyright Directive. From what I understand, to qualify as a protected parody, it will be "down to a judge to decide if the parody is funny", and the author can still be sued if it contains a discriminatory message. It also depends on what kind of public figure... politician, actor, athlete, criminal. The water is so murky, I'd check with an entertainment lawyer. England is even more "sue happy" than California.
 
Can you be sued if the person takes exception?

In theory, yes, you can be sued. Whether or not someone does actually sue comes down to a number of factors; who the person is, how many people are likely to see your film and therefore how much harm it could cause, how much money they have and/or how badly insulted they feel and therefore how much money they are willing to spend to stop you. In practise, suing say a filmmaker can potentially seriously backfire, giving a film far more publicity and a much wider audience than it would have received and/or doing more damage to that person's reputation just by bringing the case. On the other hand ...

The question then becomes, will they win?

To be honest, that's not the next question and is often never really the question!

Exactly what the law is/states and who will or is likely to win is not really the the question/issue in practice. The issue in the first place is how far that individual is prepared to go and therefore how much it's likely to cost the OP to defend himself. This cost usually gets into the six figures before the case is decided or even before it gets to court. In practise, it's this threat of costs, as much as (if not more than) the outcome itself, that those with deep pockets rely on to protect their reputation.

BTW, what Maxsdad posted looks to be completely irrelevant. The OP appears to be talking about creating original material which parodies an individual, rather than parodying copyrighted footage/material. It would therefore have nothing to do with copyright law, it would be about defamation law.

OP: It doesn't matter how slightly or much you change your character's name, even if you change it completely or even if your character has no name. Your character only has to be identifiable as (for example) Tom Cruise for him to be able to sue.

Caveat: I'm not a lawyer and am not qualified to give legal advice. On the other hand, even a lawyer is only going to be able to provide you with a "best guess", which will be based on exactly what you're saying/implying and how that person is likely to respond to it.

G
 
How big is your audience, generally? If you don't have much of an audience, currently, I really wouldn't worry about it.

If you do have a bit of an audience, I would make sure your script really emphasizes that it's a parody/satire. To create a parody is the right to criticize, basically. If you had a Tom Cruise like character and you weren't criticizing him, then you would honestly be more likely to get sued because you are solely using his likeness.

Also, I would almost copy word for word the South Park disclaimer intro where it says "all characters are fictional, and are not based on real people. Any similarities is coincidental, blah, blah, blah".
 
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