 Rowling’s blonde Make-over Seems to be More Interesting than Her Psycho Reaction to Fansite |
JK Rowling Sues Fan site. — To find any real analysis of this you need to read the blogs. This reminds me of Mattel suing the various Barbie fansites.
The publisher of an encyclopaedic website cataloguing the complex world of Harry Potter has been sued by the books’ author JK Rowling, even though she has actually used the site in her own research.
The suit is prompted by the imminent publication of a book based on the website, The Harry Potter Lexicon. Rowling and the producers of the Harry Potter films Warner Bros are seeking an injunction to stop the publication of the book, claiming copyright infringement.
The case, which will be heard in New York on 14th April, centres on what exactly constitutes copyright infringement and whether or not the Potter copyright owners’ seeming acceptance of the Lexicon as a website affects their ability to stop it becoming a book.
Potter fan Steve Vander Ark began putting the online Lexicon together in 1999, cataloguing the peculiarities of the world Rowling had created for her bespectacled hero-conjurer. Fans have contributed to the site over the years and it is now widely accepted as the definitive authority on Potter’s world.
Small Michigan publisher RDR Books has been working with Vander Ark on a book version of the Lexicon but Rowling and Warner claim that this infringes their copyright.
“The people, places, terms and images in the Harry Potter books … are Ms Rowling’s original creative work,” says the lawsuit.
“I am deeply troubled by the portrayal of my efforts to protect and preserve the copyrights I have been granted in the Harry Potter books,” said Rowling in court papers. “If RDR’s position is accepted, it will undoubtedly have a significant, negative impact on the freedoms enjoyed by genuine fans on the internet.”
Facts about the Harry Potter Lexicon website – Telegraph — Read this for some interesting background.
In 2004, Rowling gave HPL one of her “fan site awards”. On her own website, she said: “This is such a great site that I have been known to sneak into an internet café while out writing and check a fact rather than go into a bookshop and buy a copy of Harry Potter which is embarrassing.”
• The site is said to have earned only £3,000 in advertising revenue.
I guess now that these peasants actually want to make more than chickenfeed, Rowlings decides to sue over what she herself once enjoyed. Wow. What’s more interesting to me is how the media has been so gentle to Rowling and her howling over this.
People just need to stop buying those her books. Absolute drivel on paper…
People like this woman give intellectual property a bad name. I mean how much is enough? So she writes a series of books, I mean how many generations of Rowlings need to live lifestyles of the rich and famous for that? She’s probrably just a dried up old witch tormented by a frustration she can’t qwell. If she were happy or had simple human values she wouldn’t be doing this.
Of course none of us have seen the actual filing so I am assuming so we dont know what all of the arguments in the case are. I would assume she has good lawyers and that they will argue on as many issues as they can determine. The name Harry Potter could most definitely be considered a strong mark by the common law and it is her duty to defend it. I am curious as to how many lawyers are on this thread. I am guessing a few. 🙂
J.K. Rowling did praise the website, however it was just a website. I don’t see why anyone should be making money out of someone elses ideas, no matter how much money J.K. has now.
From my own perspective, I love the Harry Potter books, so much so, that I have joined a fanfiction site and have written many stories about the characters, as well as made music videos, just as countless other fans have. Yet I acknowledge that these are not my characters. I see them as “on loan”for the duration of each story or video. Fair enough, Steve Vander acknowledges that he does not OWN the stories and Characters, but I think, that he or anyone should not be able to earn money from an idea that is not his own, without authorisation. J.K. Rowling did all the work so why should someone else reap the benefit, no matter what the intention. Besides, if it is published in a website why would I bother to buy the book.
She’s a cow. Also, giving money to charity does not make her a humanitarian and it has nothing to do with the case. She couldn’t seriously argue that the Lexicon was going to stop people from buying her encyclopedia. If anything it’s her attitude and ungratefulness (ingratitude) that’s turning a lot of fans away from her, the cow. How am I supposed to ever take her serious again after she said her fictional characters are like her children? Either a total lunatic or a total bitch who does not know the value of children. Or both.
this is disgusting. and from her also- who REALLY tried to preach about morals in her books. #
Harry would have never dobe such a disgusting, small-minded, small-souled thing…ever.
She is not worty of her own hero.
Or did she become like this? From a well-fare single mother to the reachest greedy bith at all.