No, we don't.

 

If charity was the real issue she'd just donate whatever estimated amount from her own pocket right now. Which she obviously doesn't for even more obvious reasons.

 

I think the lawsuit has some deeper issues out there. On SVA's side, I think he expected to get paid to write the encyclopedia for her. On JKR's side, I think she expected to compile the lexicon add some new crap she pulls out of her hiney hole and sell it for charity.

If it were cut and dry one side or the other would have backed down or settled a long time ago.

 

if she cared about charity, she'd throw a billion dollars to it, not whatever paltry millions the encyclopedia will generate. OR, she'd let the book go through, provided the guy gave a chunk of his money to charity too.

 

She could even use a portion of ticket sales from the next two (three?) movies. She could do a mini tv series based on whatever random miscellaneous shit she feels like writing up (a la Beedle Bard) and funnel advertising money to charity. This is just a case of her being a bitch: the only thing that's not clear is whether she's a greedy bitch or a territorial bitch.

 

In a fair world the person she ripped most of HP off of in the first place would of won their legal battle. Somone find that link of the lawsuit she had to deal with awhile ago.

 

The answer to that question is yes she can, and it has been done. There are a few authors out there who say no to fanfiction all together and most sites voluntarily remove the content because the author wants them to do so. If they don't it isn't hard for her to cause the site legal problems which they can't afford to deal with. The point being that all major hpfanfiction sites would be shut down so as soon as a site got big/interesting then it would be over leaving us only with smatterings of sites and substandard stories because as soon as a site got big or a story became well known in the fanfiction world there would be a series of crack downs.

JKR won't care about the bad press either because she takes any type of press she can get. Not to mention as soon as she releases her encyclopedia for charity it will be an instant popularity boost or if she wanted a faster one she could just publish Beetle the Bard. What has she got to lose? It isn't like fanfiction authors can threaten to boycott her books. She is already filthy rich from books, movies, etc. She has the money and the power to do it if she so desires which is why whether or not she is right or wrong I think she should win this case. Personally, I hate people who write encyclopedias of works that don't belong to them especially when you can just read the same thing online for free.

She wouldn't be the first author to cockblock fanfiction nor would she be the last. If you take into consideration the general attitude of the fanfiction community towards plagiarism, it is hard to say how they would react. On the one hand they generally hate authors who don't let them write, but on the other hand they also hate authors which without the consent of the original author of a fanfiction piece decide to do a rewrite of it (citing the other author) or write a sequel even though it is actually a huge double standard since it is ok to write about a series when it is the author's work but not if it is a fanfiction author's work. It is a bit of a conundrum to follow this thinking process because personally I think they should be treated the same way. Most fanfiction authors don't want people doing rewrites of their stuff and get flame happy when they see someone doing a rewrite or continuation, but they throw a fit when the author of a book series says you can't write fanfiction. Some fanfiction authors actually respect the author's right to say no and others keep a double standard. It would be interesting to see how this plays out if JKR doesn't get her way.

 

Banning fanfiction would be the ultimate hypocrisy for her seeing as she lifted half of her ideas from the fandom in the first place. If the ratio of Hermione-Ginny fans was reversed do you really think that Harry would be stuck with Harpy lady?

Answer a question to gain access to the Ravenclaw common room, how fucking cliche. The idea is to keep people out, but anyone with moderate intelligence would bypass that security measure.

Rowling is the ultimate mugglenetter.

 

I never got fanfiction authors who get pissy when someone rewrites/continues their shit, as long as they make it clear that they don't have the consent of the original author and don't attempt to take credit for it themselves. I mean, shit, if someone did that with Magicka, I'd be *happy*. Would mean I've got someone who likes my shit enough to write fanfiction about fanfiction.

 

Well the good news is that if JKR does ever ban HP fanfiction this sight will probably just convert to Dresden Files and that will be that.

In fact with the new sections being added I'm kinda wondering if the site name will eventually be changed or something.

 

There's been no talk amoungst the staff about converting to Dresden, but as Politics, Mature Discussion, Real Life Discussion, Video games/Movies, will show you, when Harry Potter talk gets to the boring as shit point, I tend to make a forum that's traditionally been pretty damned entertaining to get us through the lull. Thats the main reason for the additional forums I through up, Hp's gotten stale and has hit an all time low with quality in the fanfics.

I'm actively trying to recruit folks to reading Dresden though, it's a lot better then Potter, and hell there's another 10 books at least to go.

 

I doubt she lifted that much from fandom. I've seen interviews where she shows her boxes full of notes. She did a crazy large amount of prewriting. I think it is more to the point that after the third book she had so much pressure on her from fans and publishers that she just got so rushed she forgot about quality because she started to hate the monster she created so she didn't care what she wrote.

I mean she admits to using the lexicon at times when she isn't writing at home which would indicate she is very rushed considering she has about 3 or 4 times the information that the lexicon does sitting right in her house. I think she got to the point where the pressure made her not care so she wrote whatever she thought would please the publishers and fans enough to leave her alone.

 

For the most part, I agree with you. It did seem like it was all rushed after Book 4 (although I refuse to read Book 7). Also, as a lot of people say, "You can't please everyone". Everyone has their own likes/dislikes. Lots of people (excluding children in this case), do not like Book 6 or Book 7 (which is most of us that did read it). And all the kids of course love all 7 books of Harry Potter. Anyone with a high amount of Intelligence had a high chance of reading fanfiction (there are tons who have), and did not like Book 6 or 7, or lots of people have read fanfiction, and prefer Book 6 & 7 over all fanfiction. There are of course, some people who take it to the extreme, and absolutely refuse to read fanfiction simply because in their solid belief, nothing will be better than the original series.

 

I myself bought the first book yesterday and am planing to read it some time tonight.

Thats just stupid. You can never know who might or might not be able to surpass the original author.

 

When it comes to Rowling, I merely see her as an opportunist. She's been in recent articles from 'Dumbledore's Gay!' to her wanting to become the next an hero. I can't help but think that not only are these tidbits of information in the news useless, but that Rowling has become accustomed to being in the limelight. And yes, it does irk me to some degree. Not enough to rant for hours on end about how much I hate her, but enough to make me roll my eyes whenever a new article pops up.

I do not, however, think she got ideas from fanfiction. She even mentions that she had the ending for Deathly Hallows planned out before she wrote the beginning of 'Philosopher's Stone'. It's more likely that Rowling became extremely stressed from the pressure of publishing 'Half-Blood Prince' and 'Deathly Hallows' on time for die hard fans, that she rushed them. Hence, she forgot about the quality that made such previous books worth reading.

 

Hmmm, well, I'm currently working on a Harry/Andromeda story taking place after the final battle. But I'm one of those people who keeps re-writing for ages, until I'm satisfied with it.

But I'd be more than happy to recommend stories, Sree. I'm quite a fan of Thomas Harris' work ('Silence of the Lambs', particularly). I also enjoy classics such as 'Tale of Two Cities', 'Dracula', and 'Count of Monte Cristo'. And I admit, I'm a fan of Shakespeare; my favorite of his plays remains, and will remain, 'Julius Caesar'. Comparing these works to something as rushed as 'Deathly Hallows' seems laughable.

I also have read the previous Harry Potter books enough to compare their quality to 'Half-Blood Prince' and 'Deathly Hallows'. And I must say, I'm disappointed in them.

 

Deathly Hallows was an O.K book book, my only complaint in that is the epilogue and that it was a bit boring...Fine, it was very boring. HBP, put me of HP book's and that is only because of the Harry/Ginny relationship from out of no where. I liked the idea of horcruxes as it gave a legitimate reason for Voldemort not dieing from the rebounded curse. The Snape thing was another thing that I didn't like but it is understandable.

OOTP and up sucked for me, but they are still a decent read....

 

Oh you liked that one too? I think Julius Caesar is his best work by far.