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I'm planning to write a comic book about Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. All the characters are fake, but they talk about Brazilian Jiu Jitsu history. They explain the origin of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and mention the masters Helio and Carlson.

I didn't find a forum about writing books, and this is the closest I found.

Do I need to pay royalties or ask for some kind of permission to the family?

Macaco Branco
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AFetter
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    There are trademarks registered but one generally cannot copyright or trademark factual knowledge, so I think that you'd just need to be clear that you are not affiliated with, and do not represent BJJ. – Macaco Branco Mar 07 '24 at 17:50
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    Oh, and where are you located? The laws might vary depending on location. Incidentally, writing.stackexchange.com and law.stackexchange.com might also be decent places to check, although be a bit wary about cross-posting, which is discouraged. – Macaco Branco Mar 07 '24 at 17:51
  • So long as you're not plagiarizing the story from something already published or spoken by someone else, you should be okay. Retelling the story in your own way is fine. Otherwise nobody could talk about anything. It is also considered "fair use" to take parts of published works and quote them, so long as you give them proper attribution with a citation. If I were you, I'd tell the Gracie story in your own way, but I'd also give an attribution and cite their published work as a little reference off to the side.

    https://libguides.csusm.edu/academic_honesty/what_is_plagiarism

     – Steve Weigand Mar 07 '24 at 20:46
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    You may also find help on https://writing.stackexchange.com and possibly https://law.stackexchange.com - just keep in mind that the Law SE does not allow questions asking for specific legal advice. – End Anti-Semitic Hate Mar 09 '24 at 00:47
  • Who are you going to go through to publish it? Any decent publisher will know the answers to all of these questions. – JohnP Mar 12 '24 at 15:55
  • Thank you @JohnP, I'm the publisher :) – AFetter Mar 18 '24 at 05:01

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