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Thursday, December 01, 2011

Gabriel García Márquez Wins 17-year Fight over His Novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold

Nobel-prize winning Columbian author Gabriel García Márquez recently won 17-year legal fight over his murder classic Chronicle of a Death Foretold reports The Guardian.

While overturning the case filed by Miguel Reyes Palencia alleging that the novel was based on his life, the judge observed:

"Hundreds of literary, artistic, and cinematographic works have had as their central story facts from real life, which have been adapted to the creator's perspective, without this being an impediment to [the author's right] to claim economic rights over them."

Hope this turns into a good precedent for novelists and authors who write authentic novels based on characters they observe in real life. Afterall, there's nothing wrong in basing novels on true incidents as it makes the story more believable and also serves as a documentary portraiture of the times in which the characters live provided the characters' true identities are protected. Besides, artistic licence is granted to writers and authors of fiction who need it to base their characters in authentic situations. I think it is a landmark judgment and will be a booster to writers everywhere.

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