I've just watched Alpha Dog - if you haven't seen it's based on a true story - and it got me thinking are writers allowed to pick an event that really happened and dramatize it? Or would the criminals - in the case of Alpha Dog - own the rights to their story and you would need their permission to write a story about it? Any ideas?
I don't think you'd need their permission or that they'd own the copyright.
The only thing I think you'd have to worry about is not libeling them.
So as long as you don't use too much creativity it should be fine?
I think even if you use creativity, they'd need to show it was defamatory in some way.
But that is traditionally quite easy, in British courts at least.