I have a student who is currently doing time with Her Majesty. This student wants to write his life story. What are the laws regarding writing a book of true crime when criminals are not supposed to profit from the proceeds of crime. If the student writes about his life and part of the book focuses on the crime, does this make a difference?
It's just as well I have an LLB (Hons) after my name otherwise I wouldn't really feel qualified to answer this ...
The key part of your question is 'profiting from the proceeds of crime' - so long as your student receives no profit, there's no problem. Which means that any monies he may receive from a hypothetical publishing deal would have to go to someone else and, I believe, could not be held in trust for him to receive at a later stage. He would never be able to access the proceeds. There is no law stopping him writing about his experiences - hello, representative democracy - it's just the profiting part.
Showing posts with label true crime. Show all posts
Showing posts with label true crime. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
In the clink
I have a high-profile prisoner who wants to write an autobiography. Would there be a market for this sort of thing in Australia?
It depends on the prisoner and what he did (I'm presuming it's a 'he' - we don't have that many high-profile female prisoners). If it's Ivan Milat, forget it. If it's one of the Snowtown murderers, DEFINITELY forget it. If it's a white-collar crook who can dish dirt on corporate shenanigans, maybe. But it's a hard thing to sell to publishers and the public - people will assume that any autobiography would be an attempt to place blame elsewhere rather than accept responsibility. The story would need to be really amazing to get past that. I wouldn't personally buy the autobiography of a high-profile prisoner but I read a lot of true crime, so maybe I just like to read about that stuff at one remove from the perpetrator. You should also bear in mind that if your prisoner is still in gaol, he's not going to see any moolah from a book deal, even when he's out of gaol.
It depends on the prisoner and what he did (I'm presuming it's a 'he' - we don't have that many high-profile female prisoners). If it's Ivan Milat, forget it. If it's one of the Snowtown murderers, DEFINITELY forget it. If it's a white-collar crook who can dish dirt on corporate shenanigans, maybe. But it's a hard thing to sell to publishers and the public - people will assume that any autobiography would be an attempt to place blame elsewhere rather than accept responsibility. The story would need to be really amazing to get past that. I wouldn't personally buy the autobiography of a high-profile prisoner but I read a lot of true crime, so maybe I just like to read about that stuff at one remove from the perpetrator. You should also bear in mind that if your prisoner is still in gaol, he's not going to see any moolah from a book deal, even when he's out of gaol.
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