Legal question

[Petofsuccubus]

I have an idea for an original fic, but something about it irked me, so I decided to bring it up here before even starting to write. If I were to use a name of a real web community/service (I'm not entirely sure which one this falls into) in the story as the main character's primary source of relevant communication, would that get me into trouble? Would I need an additional disclaimer, or would I be better off inventing a name and describing a similar service? In particular, the web service is called Chaturbate, and the main characters would be one of the "performers", or however they prefer to call them.

[ApolloImperium]

You do need to disclaim at the start of the book or you can use the concept and re-name it. Novels often have things or places that we are already familiar with and depending on the publisher they either rely on the reader being smart enough to realize that it's used in a fictional sense or simply have a disclaimer at the beginning. I always say better safe than sorry

[Melrick]

If the company is viewed in a particularly negative way in the story, though, that's when they can become a tad litigious.

[Petofsuccubus]

You do need to disclaim at the start of the book or you can use the concept and re-name it. Novels often have things or places that we are already familiar with and depending on the publisher they either rely on the reader being smart enough to realize that it's used in a fictional sense or simply have a disclaimer at the beginning. I always say better safe than sorry

Not a book, just a story I'd put up on the net, but I see where you're going with this.

If the company is viewed in a particularly negative way in the story, though, that's when they can become a tad litigious.

I wouldn't say it's a negative light. It's simply the main character's side job.