Here. I glanced around and didn't see another thread for this. So is she being a cash-whoring bitch, or does she have a point?

 

I don't think anyone will disagree that JKR is a cash-whoring bitch. That was established long ago.

Her motivation for opposing this .. if this book gets published, it establishes precedent. Then, say hello to thousands of aspiring authors, all trying to publish -every- single crap thought they have on HP. A proverbial gold-mine for people all over the world. Followed by a legal nightmare for JK.

In short I don't believe she's being a cash-whoring bitch at THIS instance. More like she's protecting her established interests.

As to to her having a point or not, that'll be a long,long debate. Not getting into that.

 

JKR is in the wrong. There are already a great many unofficial Potter encyclopedias, and she did nothing to block those. The only reason why she's trying to block this one is because she knows that it will be better than hers...

JKR's encyclopedia will be valuable for new information, but in terms of how thorough she is in presenting the information and the finer details, the Lexicon has her beat.

And the Lexicon's lawyer is right. She has no legal right to block this book.

QFT.

 

I got to side with JKR on this one. Though she set herself up for it by taking an encouragable stance towards the Lexicon website long ago.

Still if I'm an author, particularly one that's just finished the most profitable seven story arc of all time, and someone else all of a sudden claims they're writing an encyclopedia about my shit so they can get a cut. Well, fuck that!

You can call it greedy, you might even call it selfish, but you can't call it outside of my rights as the owner and creator of the material. I don't know how JK handled this, but were it me I'd have given the Lexicon owners a polite phone call, something like this.

"I didn't argue when you made an encyclopedic website for my shit. I thought it was cute and flattering, and it might have even helped encourage some of the phanatasism with my stories. You got a career, some interwebz fame, and a profit from that shit. I even went so far as to pimp your site in interviews.

But that wasn't good enough for you. No. Now you want to write a book. One that I plan on writing myself, no less. So I'll ask nicely. Please jog off with that idea. Otherwise I'll have to drop my 4 ton wallet on you, shut down your site, your book, and overall scourgify your bitch-ass from existence."

(Yes, JK does use references to her spells in everyday speech).

Just my thoughts.

Omagic

 

Considering there are already over 30 unofficial encylopedias/literary analyses of the HP literary phenom including the Mugglenet one and the one that the woman behind Leaky Cauldron is writing, she doesn't have much of a leg to stand on. The cat is already out of the bag. Search for Harry Potter Encyclopedia on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_pg_1...a&rh=i:aps,k:Harry Potter Encyclopedia&page=1

I believe Van der Ark wanting some form of compensation for the use of the HP Lexicon timeline on the DVDs was the initial genesis of all the sore feelings.

The reason, she's doing the press releases is that WB knows they aren't likely to win in court, so they're going to win in the war of public opinion.

 

Did JKR not admit once that she used Lexicon to check facts when she was writing the later books? I swear I read that somewhere, but I don't have a source.

If Rowling used Lexicon and the books were still littered with plot holes, Lexicon should not be allowed to publish a book anyway. /?

I'm with Taure on this. Lexicon is detailed to the extent Rowling would never touch on. It makes you wonder though, when Rowling does release her encyclopaedia, whether or not she will take into account the fact her original fans were around 10 at the time of the Philosophers Stone (SS) and are now in their 20's and give them something with a little more intellect behind it...

Also, what impact would a Rowling success have on fanfiction I wonder?

 

It's on her website, in her description of HP Lexicon in the fan awards section.

 

Sometimes I wonder if she should have just used you as an encyclopaedia on all things Potter

 

The fact that derivative works have been published does not affect Rowling's claim of copyright in the slightest (you might be confusing "copyright" with "trademark". A trademark has to be defended to remain valid. A copyright is always valid).

Now, the Lexicon guy might be able to argue fair use if his work is, say, literary analysis of the HP series. Publishing a collection of names, dates, and places taken straight out of the books? He's going to lose. (e.g. the essays at the Lexicon are a clear case of fair use. The timeline? Not so much...)

 

Selected exerts from an article jbern brought to attention:

http://www.slate.com/id/2181776/pagenum/all/#page_start

 

I wonder what will happen if and when she loses, could she go on a fan negation vendetta, and decide no more fan fiction like the shitload of authors that forbid it? She seems the type to hold a grudge.

 

Fair point.

Although fanfiction isn't illegal even if the author disapproves of it, if JKR said "No more HP fanfiction" it would be gone from FF.net tomorrow (look what happened after she said she didn't like FF porn, or try finding "Interview with the Vampire" fanfiction sometime).

That would probably spell the beginning of the end, if for no other reason than it would discourage new authors from writing HPFF.

 

In the end, it doesn't matter. I've long ago began ignoring Rowling. She's gone psychotic.

But in my opinion and in the words of the law; Rowling & Warner will lose because there is no basis for lawsuit.

 

If she does that, in a week there'll be 100 new sites operating for Harry Potter.

Fucking bitch. One of these days she's going to do or say something, and she'll be exposed for what she is: a money-grubbing attention-seeking whore.

I hope if she says, "Oh no, I hate fanfiction, it's my intellectual property, and as Goddess of Harry Potter, I decree that all fanfiction writing and reading must stop," then DLP will weather it.

And I'm siding with the Lexicon on this. I believe there's already a few hundred "Companion" Harry Potter books published. Hell, when I got OOtP I got some crappy "How well do you know Harry Potter?" book as well. She's got no feet to stand on.

Oh, and two minutes in GIMP:

 

I've looked through both sides of the legal briefs. One thing you have to remember is that a legal filing is just one sides way of saying according to my declarations, exhibits and cited precedents, there is no way you should believe these other punkasses.

The other side files their side of the story (in your face! Here's are declarations, exhibits and precedents and you ain't proved shit!).

Both sides in this one have their strengths and weaknesses. If it were cut and dry, one side would have backed down a long time ago, but there's enough of a blurred line for both to have a shot.

Sure JKR and WB have a but ton of money, but RDR has the Fair Use people at the Stanford Law School (ie intellectuals who have nothing better to do then piss on big business and split hairs).

The only reason it's resurfacing is the temporary injunction is running out from back in October and this puppy's headed to court in two weeks.

The court will try to narrowly define it's opinion otherwise it'll be used as fodder and precedent for future cases (it will anyway).

Each side will do the "doom and gloom" predictions if the other side wins using phrases like "Dangerous Precedents" and so forth. The RDR folks will say if WB wins, it'll be the end of fair use as we know it. WB will counter with the courts are trampling over the rights of the authors. It will stifle creativity (and our right to make a buck.) JKR will continue to release those press releases bemoaning the charities that won't benefit from her unwritten book.

If I have to guess at the outcome - my gut says the courts find that the Lexicon is sufficently "Transformative" enough to fall under the category of reference and literary analysis. It goes on to sell poorly based on the sheer amount of negative publicity. JKR puts hers out in about 3 years after Movie 7 (part 2 if you believe in that) but by then Pottermania is ebbing and it isn't the rampaging success everyone had hoped - unless they offer up book 8 or a new series...

Either way life goes on. WB knows it doesn't want to piss off the fans too badly. They'll need us for their next hit series.

 

There's no such thing as bad publicity, or so I'm told.

That said, if the book doesn't sell it my guess is that it will have something to do with the fact that the content this guy is trying to sell is available for free on his website...

 

Absolutely. Imagine marketing something that is already available for free. Even if they made Lexicon members only someone else could just make another site.

 

...I wave the bullshit flag!

The whole site is just a data base, an easy go to on what happened during the books. The author isn't saying "I wrote the books" or something like it. Just publishing it (which as pointed out if kind of stupid, it's on the internet for free...) is just putting it in handy book format so we can carry it around instead of having to be on the computer to look it up. Discussing and dissecting the books is totally legal (or so i'm told) and just because you put it in book format (or on page, like a review) shouldn't be illegal.

 

it all depends on what it is RDR actually wants to publish. Do they want to just publish all the factual information on Harry Potter or just their literary criticisms and discussions of Harry Potter?

if it's the former, then RDR is in the wrong. They have no right at all to do so without explicit permission from JKR. She gave them the go ahead for the website, even go further to "pimp" it out in interviews. But that doesn't provide coverage for a book or something similar.

if it's the latter (which i highly doubt), then JKR is in the wrong. She would be compromising the rights of people to provide textual documentations in form of essays, reviews and the like.

However, I seriously doubt that this is her goal. She has a very permissive view on works of that nature: fan fiction, literary criticisms and discussions. Like I told one of my friends, all she wants is to be the only one that provides purely canonical works on HP. She wants to be the only one to tell you how deep the HPverse goes.