Roundup of “plagiarism accusations”
May 14, 2003
News
Today’s Guardian has a great roundup of authors, writers and artists accused of “copying” someone elses material or taking action over being copied themselves. It includes a list of J.K. Rowling’s recent troubles:
JK Rowling was accused of violating the intellectual property rights of Nancy K Stouffer, who believed her book The Legend of Rah and the Muggles, published in 1984, was the inspiration for Harry Potter. However, last year a New York court disagreed and fined Ms Stouffer £30,000 for “intentional bad faith conduct”. Last month, lawyers for JK Rowling blocked the publication of a Dutch translation of a Russian novel about a girl wizard. The court said the Russian book was an unauthorised adaptation.