In The News
Fanfic and False Press - The Real Story on James Potter and the Hall of Elders' Crossing
FansMany of you have written to us regarding the Web site for James Potter and the Hall of Elder’s Crossing, which looks remarkably similar to an official Harry Potter Web site that might be put out by Warner Bros. As earlier reported, the site heralds a fanfic written by George Lippert, a 37-year-old Web designer from St. Louis, MO, who wrote the book-length fic for his wife and children and plans to release a chapter a day in December.
Some papers, including The Scotsman, have reported that J.K. Rowling’s representatives are threatening legal action against Mr. Lippert. This is entirely false, and some papers have retracted that information publicly.
Mr. Lippert contacted TLC to tell us the following (which has been backed up by the Christopher Little Agency, the entity that would pursue a legal action if there was one to be had):
“Information regarding any ‘legal action’ on the part of Ms. Rowling is quite false. I sought contact with Ms. Rowling via her agent, offering her an advance copy of the story for her perusal. This was accepted (at least by her agent), and presumably they are currently perusing JPHEC at this moment to assure they have no problems with the content. Additionally, they have assured me that as long as I have no intentions of publishing the book for profit, that it is appropriate for children [no pornography], and that I do not intend to attribute it to Ms. Rowling, they have no problem whatsoever with my free release of the book.“
Again, the Christopher Little Agency also told TLC of the phone call, its contents, the requested provisions regarding the work, and the request to share the fanfiction with J.K. Rowling (though whether it has indeed gone to J.K. Rowling herself is unconfirmed).
Mr. Lippert has said that he’s quite surprised by all the attention to his work and didn’t intend for the story to become so egregious.
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See… that’s how it’s supposed to work. This guy obviously didnt want to squash any toes, so he was proactive and sent a copy ahead. Well done. I dont usually read fanfic that’s outside of the cannon era, but I might have to read this, just to see what the hubub is all about.
There wasn’t nothing illegal with the fanfic, so it is a good news :) Mr. Lippert’s fanfic will be a success, at least its release. The only difference with other fanfictions is that this one has an amazing campaign of publicity.
Right . . . he’s “surprised” . . . that’s why he created a website that looks exactly like the official HP sites. Odds are he’s some writing hack who figured he’d create the site, pretend he’s sending it to JK’s reps “for approval”, and gets lots of media & publishing-community attention. Once he hands off his sad little attempt at fan-fic for free, he’ll start pushing them to publish his “real” book that no publishing company would touch so far. Wouldn’t be surprised if he eventually claims he was stifled/gagged/harrassed by JK’s reps but was “too respectful” to say anything.
What a loser.
I don’t think that’s a very nice thing to say Amanda. He seems to be very honest and not trying to be a jerk to Jo and I think it’s great he’s so dedicated a fan to write his family such a large fan-fic (and release it to all of us). Plus, let me tell you creating that intro and website isn’t easy, he worked hard on that.
Well I’m going to read it! I do care who writes it, if its anything like harry potter, I’m good.
Yay! I’m excited about this! I wanted to read it and it’s great that it’s gotten the “seal of approval.” Dec. 1st here I come! I just hope that it’s all it’s hyped up to be, of course the nice part is that he can create a lot more of his own characters and not have to go along with characters that have already had everything written out for them. I wonder if he’ll do more than one book is this one is a success…
I can’t wait for this fanfic! I don’t read fanfics at all usually, but the buildup around this one has been so big that I have to check it out!
I think thats a pretty horrible thing to say Amanda.
You don’t know the guy. Fair play to him if he did, as he says, contact the reps and go about it the right way-unlike some other people recently.
Big deal if its a similar website-the potter fonts etc etc can be downloaded anywhere so I dont think using a similar style of writing is a big deal. Also as a web designer he obviously has a talent for website building-which he has superbly demonstrated with this site.
I for one cant wait to read his fanfic-I hope Jo has had a peak at it too and likes it! One thing I have wanted for a long time was a James Potter story! Cant wait!
im really looking forward to reading this i read fanfics all the time but i havent read one that has its own website before so i think it will be exciting =]
Wait, massive numbers of newspapers got something wrong and Jo was entirely trustworthy, credible, and right?
Seems like a lesson in whom one should trust, to me.
Aww glad everything was cleared up, and I am actually looking forward to reading this fanfic :)
The intro and the website look fab, he’s a clever guy, no doubt he’ll get lots of web work from all this publicity! I just hope the fanfic’s up to the same standard- for his sake!
I’m relieved to hear that Christopher Little isn’t pursuing any lawsuit against this man. I was very disturbed at the idea when it was reported that such was the case, as J.K. Rowling and her associates have previously been very receptive and positive about the existence and legality of fan-fiction in the Harry Potter fandom.
I must commend all parties involved for being so cooperative with each other.
amanda, that was by far the rudest thing i’ve ever read on these online comments, and i think there have been some pretty damn rude people before you, so that’s saying something. nice one, calling someone a ‘loser’ when you have no idea, really, of whom you’re speaking. well done. you’ve shown that you’re really someone to respect…
Any word from WB? I thought that any problem would be from them, not JKR.
Wonder if someday we’ll get collections of the best HP fan-fic published? with JKR as judge (joined by Melissa and Emerson, naturally!)
I never read fanfic, but I might just read this one if, when it comes out, people think it is good as all the hype has led me to believe.
And kudos to the guy who wrote it by going about things the right way, getting it approved by JKR’s people first. Just goes to show that you really can’t trust the media to get their fact straight before publishing.
Did you see he released the cover! OMG!! I can’t wait, I’ll definately read this!
Amanda – what a loser YOU are. Why are you bitching about this? That was so rude.
I can’t wait for this.
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It looks exciting, the web page looks awesome!