Disclaimer Help Please

[jaded_priceless]

Hello Mods,

I am new to the site and posted my first story yesterday. The title is Borealis: A Zutara Story in the Cartoon / Avatar the Last Airbender Section. I have updated my disclaimer to read: "I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender, Avatar: The Legend of Korra, any historical figures or events, or easily recognizable persons, places or things. I make no profit from this work of fanfiction"

The work in progress so far is over 500,000 words. So far only characters from the Avatar World have been used but as I progress in posting the historical figures and references to other fandoms will come into play. Do I need to provide the full list now or will updating the disclaimer as the chapters progress suffice?

Also this isn't a crossover fic but due to the length I have borrowed the first names of characters from other fandoms but not their descriptions for some of my OC's (such as a girl named Kagome that eats bugs another OC gives her and a married couple named Kisa and Hiro). Does the fandom from where I heard the name need to be listed? I can always rename the characters before posting if need be.

I know author's notes can not make up a full chapter, but can a disclaimer? I'm still working on this beast and I have no idea where the plot bunnies will take me.

Thank you for your patience and assistance,

Jaded_Priceless

[BronxWench]

Hi!

Thanks for taking the time to ask about this, because I know it can seem confusing when you're posting your first story here.

In general, unless the historical figure or other fandom is forming a part of the story, it's not necessary to disclaim them. For example, if you have a scene where someone reads The Little Prince to a child at bedtime, and you haven't used the characters or storyline of that book in your tale beyond that mention of the title, you don't need to disclaim that book. If you quote a line or two from the book, you can cite it in an author's note or footnote at the end off the chapter, but it still doesn't need to be disclaimed.

Similarly, just using the name "Kagome" doesn't require you to disclaim the InuYasha fandom. Your character is not going to resemble the Kagome from InuYasha, and if the only common factor is the name, there's no crossover and therefore no need to disclaim. (Heck, I used to call my son in the playground and six other boys would answer...)

Now, if you are using elements like settings from other fandom, yes, you will need to disclaim those. You can do so in an author's note at the top of the chapter, and if you mark it as an additional disclaimer, it is not counted as part of the 600 word Author's Note limit we have per chapter. You are correct, though, that we can't allow chapters that are only an author's note, or even a disclaimer. The disclaimer, however, can be done all at the beginning of the first chapter if you wanted to do it that way. As long as the chapter also had story content, it's fine.

I hope this helps, and please feel free to ask if there's anything else we can clarify.

And welcome to AFF!

[jaded_priceless]

Thank you for your speedy response.

I had planned denote which characters were named after historical figures and include link to where I found the information for them. That made me think of another question. Do I need to put the information in every chapter which they appear or only in the first?

[BronxWench]

Oh, goodness! You only need to disclaim things once, either in the first chapter or in the chapter in which they appear if you are doing it outside the disclaimer field. You don't need to link the information on the historical figures. If you've included a note that they were actual historical figures, and did the proper disclaimer for real persons, that's enough.

If you do want to share links with your readers, I'd recommend making a review thread here in the forums and giving your readers the url to that thread. You can share the links there, and it's perfectly acceptable. You can also have discussions with your readers without worrying about the 600 word limit for author's notes in the archive. Your readers do not need to become members of the forum to read or post on the review threads.

[jaded_priceless]

Thank you again for the help.