Steve is on a thin ice here. I think he made a mistake allying himself with a greedy publisher and is now suffering because of it.

No ill wishes for Steve but it’s obvious that JKR and WB are absolutely right here.

If they really try to argue that this is similar to an academic or scientific paper I’ll laugh really hard.

amadis, you’re obviously not following me.

The lawsuit does claim copywrite infringment. I think the argument, by which I mean response (or defense since we’re dealing in legal terms) won’t be that its not copywrite infringemnt, but rather that copywrite law doesn’t apply at all. Okay thats all from me for tonight.

I’m sorry, but Steve’s just plain wrong on this one. I mean come on, saying that essays from his site are going to be used in a book without asking their author’s permission, its just sloppy. The same can be said for rdrbooks.com, the website of the lexicon’s publisher, which displays a large banner reading “WHY DOES WARNER BROTHERS WANT TO STOP YOU FROM READING STEVE VANDER ARK’S HARRY POTTER LEXICON? FIND OUT HERE.” and flashing it in red, pretty much screaming unproffesional. This whole thing is rediculous, this is not an analysis book, but simply a listing of someone else’s ideas, and because of that, can not be legally printed. End of story.

An encyclopedia of a fictional series of novels using someone else’s characters is not the same as a scientific paper. A scientific paper can reorganize established facts that are in the public domain, like Norway is part of Scandinavia, or whatever. But the fact that Draco Malfoy is the son of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy is not in the public domain. It’s not the same as a scientific paper.

Quote: “Because the material for the book was not only accepted but praised and used frequently by every entity concerned with creating the Harry Potter books, games, and films, I would never have thought that a print version could be judged differently.”

That shows an astounding lack of foresight and consideration on the Lexicon’s part. Aside from the part where saying the Lexicon was “used frequently” by “every entity concerned” is a bit of a stretch, a printed book which you are SELLING is entirely different than a free website, even if it has the same content. And I really think Steve should know that.

The scientific paper discussion is interesting. I’m really not sure that copyright law can be applied in the same way, though. (I don’t know enough about either scientific papers or copyright law.)

If Jo says to cease and desist, just drop it. It’s her world, her choices; the Lexicon wouldn’t be a thought in anyone’s head if it wasn’t for her. Respect the woman who made you (Steve) a household name among Potter fans.

Wouldn’t water quality guidelines be meant to be freely accessed? If not, perhaps you would be so kind as to C/P their copyright statement which says something to the effect of “No portion of this… may be reprinted in whole or in part by any means… without express permission…” and I’d like a link to that set of “guidelines” with a copyright statement that precludes anyone from using them.

Will you be publishing and selling these re-organized guidelines for a profit if they do have a copyright statement?

If there are such copyright statements and your teacher is telling you to ignore them and to copy verbatim without permission, it’s a lousy teacher. Although, as long as you were only using these re-organized guidelines for a school paper and would not be publishing them and selling for a profit, I’d imagine the copyright holder would not care. Much like JKR doesn’t care about the free Lexicon website, but DOES care about profiteering from her copyrighted works.

I love this part. ”...I would never have thought that a print version could be judged differently.”

He’s got to be kidding. Once you charge for something, that makes it a commercial project, which is the essence of copyright infringement.

So a guy comes out and says he really didn’t expect this and he hopes it works out ok, and you all just jump on him. That’s awesome. Good job guys. He’s obviously not a real Harry Potter fan (even though he probably knows more about that world than anyone in this world – 1). So go ahead and bash him in support of your god – I mean favorite author.

Oh, and boycotting the site, that’s hilarious, no one cares. Combined with putting a caution on Leaky for reporting news and remaining steadfastly unbiased in the face of this slam-fest. Classy.

what caution on leaky?

It does seem like Steve made a rather large mistake, but I forgive him- he seems like a truly kind and genuine guy. I hope this situation is solved soon. :)

“never would have imagined” – EXCEPT FOR THE PART WHEN THEY EMAILED YOU IN SEPTEMBER, STEVE. You didn’t have to imagine after that.

This is hilarious.

Oh, Melissa. What an awkward position you must be in right now!

This entire debacle is rather like watching someone with very twitchy fingers dance around a big red button with the words SELF DESTRUCT printed on it…