IANAL, but the wikipedia page for defamation[1] seems instructive. In short, for something to be defamation, the defamatory statement must be "expressly stated

IANAL, but the wikipedia page for defamation[1] seems instructive. In short, for something to be defamation, the defamatory statement must be "expressly stated or implied to be factual". Another possibility would be that this was "public disclosure of private facts" So the first citation, this is not defamation, because it is not stated or implied the statement was true. It would probably be comparable to a fictional account. On the other hand, per the second citation, since it wasn't true, it wasn't unlawful "public disclosure of private facts". This seems to mean that in fiction, everything is fair game, as long as it is clear it's fiction and you don't 'accidently' include facts. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defamation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defamation