Writing Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for the craft of professional writing, including fiction, non-fiction, technical, scholarly, and commercial writing. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
I write non fiction books about computer science and security (Zzz) but with the security bits in particular, do I really need to put a disclaimer saying "hey don't go hack the government" on my ebooks?
Could some reader potentially turn around and say "you didn't warn me stealing credit card information is illegal" and try some frivolous lawsuit? - I constantly find myself reading and writing these little "don't use this in the real world" messages and its becoming cumbersome.
If you really think someone is going to use your book as a how-to, then write a preface which is a single large, comprehensive disclaimer. Put all the "don't do this at home" copy there, and if it's an e-book, throw in the occasional link back to it.
(Also, don't publish genuine secrets, and you may want to have the number of a good lawyer on hand as a backup. Because people are sometimes insane.)
A disclaimer will do nothing to legally protect you.
To be indicted as an accessory to a crime as a writer, the prosecution has to prove the following:
(1) You either knew of the planned crime, or had a reasonable expectation that a particular crime would be committed
(2) Your assistance was critical to the commission of the crime
In general, you will only be indicted if you enable the commission of a specific crime. For example, if you write a chapter, "How to Hack a Router", you are fine. If you write a chapter on "How to Hack Verizon's Routers Located at 148.165.73.*", then you could be risking a prosecution (and no amount of disclaimer will make any difference). Do you see the difference between these two examples?
