I would like to thank each and every one of you for your support in recent days. Everyone here at the Lexicon, all volunteers, regrets the unpleasantness. We have always been interested in working with the publishers of the novels to satisfy their concerns, interests and needs and we certainly do not plan nor have we ever planned to publish anything which competes with Ms. Rowling’s fine literary capabilities. Our work has nothing to do with fiction writing and is only concerned with legitimate critical analysis and academic considerations. It has been widely approved and employed by Ms. Rowling herself.
My book was started in response to many, many people who talked to me and asked if there could be a print version of the Lexicon, not in some sort of attempt to profit off of fans. 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.
I sincerely hope that this matter can be resolved amicably and ask for you patience and understanding during that process.
Other new details are as follows: Following yesterday’s post which said there was a possibility that essays would be included in the Lexicon, several Lexicon essay writers have publicly said that they were not asked for permission to have their essay reprinted, and some essay writers have been assured by Lexicon staff that there will be no essays in the book at all. We have asked the publisher which is correct and will amend this post if we get an answer.
Update: RDR books answered our query with a lengthy statement that neither confirmed nor denied. We’ve asked for a more direct answer and have yet to receive one.
Update 2: TLC has received word via a reliable source that the initial email to Steve Vander Ark and RDR Books was phrased as an attempt to appeal to the Lexicon’s status as a site favored by J.K. Rowling. It also, according to the source, clearly named Warner Bros. as at stake and called Vander Ark a friend of the series and someone publishers/lawyers/agents were sure did not want to disrupt Rowling’s rights. RDR has called the email “threatening and abusive” and claimed that Warner Bros. only claimed rights after RDR sent them a letter regarding the timeline on the Harry Potter DVDs.
Also in the time since this issue began the book has risen from ranked lower than 230,000 in Amazon.co.uk books, to 7,034 as of this posting.
Update 3: A reader has commented that they ordered the book in the UK, which was slated to have a Nov. 5, 2007, publication date; the order was pushed back to January, 4, 2008, instead.
The Harry Potter Lexicon is a partner site to The Leaky Cauldron. The opinions and claims argued here do not constitute The Leaky Cauldron’s opinion or claim (of which it has none).
“please, PLEASE give me ONE example of just a successful author who HASN’T allowed fans to have fan websites, fan fiction, fan art? I’m so confused as to why people keep bringing this up as a sign of JKR’s generosity. She’s not exactly set a precedent here.”
You want an example? That’s easy—Anne Rice. She will immediately shut down any fan fiction, and has done so since 2000. Try finding any fan fiction for her books online. It simply can’t be done.
Well, as a 61-year-old Harry Potter fan, I have often wished The Lexicon was in book form many times (as my memory isn’t as good as it used to be). A book form of the Lexicon would certainly be handier than always needing to use one of our computers to look up something I had forgotten.
I see this whole issue as unfortunate for everyone involved, especially the fans. Regardless of who is right, who is wrong, who has the copyright law on their side, etc. I for one would love to be able to have copies of BOTH books someday, both JKR’s and Steve’s.
Have been following the comments and just read the RDR-FAQ…would like to quote just one more statement screaming with inconsistency:
“What is your response to J.K. Rowling’s November 2 allegation that the Harry Potter Lexicon aims to “re-organize their characters and plots?”
As the plaintiffs including Ms. Rowling know from their use of the Harry Potter Lexicon for the past seven years, this is a non-fiction critical reference work. Never in its history have the reference librarians and academic scholars at the Harry Potter Lexicon attempted to reorganize fictional plots or characters.”
...and here I thought (re)organizing the plot was the point of an encyclopedia/the lexicon.
Well… That statement just sounded a tad bit fake to me. I’m not trying to see him as the villain of the piece, but come on Steve, really?
Who the hell would ask to PAY that much money for something that was free on the Internet already? And if they did, I shall consider them utterly insane or stupidly rich! I can’t believe the book moved up in the sales rank. Talk about bad publicity and gaining from it.
Like the many brilliant people in this discussion suggested, just put a print button on the website and be done with it!
Personally, if this were my work, I would not want it to be reformatted and published into an encyclopaedia that I was ALREADY GOING TO PUBLISH, on the subject of MY BOOKS. But that’s just me.
I have no sympathy for the man and I wish JKR all the best.
End Note: It’s not about the winning; it’s not about the money. It’s the principle of it!
i may not understand all the lawyer stuff. the lexicon is free, great and/but free, but if you try and make money from someone else’s work…not cool. look at the leaky crafts section it explains the morality of copyright perfectly…someone put it great when they said something to the effect of JKR allowing us to play in her “sandbox”. sorry this book is NOT okay, by the very nature of what it is…
John and Sue,
Until she comes back, maybe you could refer to her as “Melvin the Muggle”. As she won’t gain back her wizarding privelages until she returns.
I’ve just read SVA’s statement, and the one on RDR. Looks like they are finally listening closely to their attorneys (SVA has of course been quiet, very appropriately so, which means his posting almost certainly is at the advice of his legal representative)
Folks, the real key here is the content of the proposed book, which none of us are aware of. Can we stop bashing anyone and everyone? Let’s recognize its a sad situation that might have been avoided, and simply hope that the various parties—all of whom have given us a lot—find a solution that gives us still more to enjoy?
Rule of thumb in publishing and scholarship: two (or twenty) people can write critical or analytical books on the same subject, and no two will be identical. Since JKR has a lot of notes and materials that no one but she is aware of, her Encyclopedia would necessarily be more inclusive than anything SVA or anyone else could do. As long as SVA’s proposed book does not violate any copyright laws (see Mr. Blood’s post at the top of page 3 in this thread), then what’s the big deal…
Everything hinges on the proposed content…and I simply wish the matter had been dealt with earlier and more sensibly.
A final thought, about buying the books. I plan to buy the Mugglenet book, definitely, and Melissa’s (which really touches on something unique, the importance of TLC and its Floonet partners and the HP fans in this wonderful HP journey) when it becomes available. If SVA’s book does appear after all the legal stuff is finished, I’ll buy that too. Why? Each of the major fan sites has given a lot to us, and at a tremendous effort. So, how can I best support those people who gave me what I wanted? I’ll buy their books, each of which will be easier to read than my printoffs from the web!
Melissa’s book really does promise to be the most interesting…there has never before been anything like TLC and FlooNet, and I am eager to learn the details of how everything came about, the early (er um) unplesantness with WB (which everyone seems to have forgotten!), and so on.
Thank you, Leaky, for keeping us informed, and for giving us a space to discuss the news!
How come jo didn’t give steve premission to write this book anyways. Pullman give premission to ms. frost to write an encyclopedia. It wouldn’t have hurt anyway. Why is jo so mean.
not: Bad, bad Jo, wanting to write the encyclopedia of her own world & characters and give the profit to charity when Steve knows what she thinks about her characters much better and needs money more that those stupid starved orphaned children… What’s she thinking, really. It’s such a clear cut case.
"Well... when I went up to Madam Pomfrey to get [my teeth] shrunk, she held up a mirror and told me to stop her when they were back to how they normally were," she said. "And I just... let her carry on a bit." She smiled even more widely.
“please, PLEASE give me ONE example of just a successful author who HASN’T allowed fans to have fan websites, fan fiction, fan art? I’m so confused as to why people keep bringing this up as a sign of JKR’s generosity. She’s not exactly set a precedent here.”
You want an example? That’s easy—Anne Rice. She will immediately shut down any fan fiction, and has done so since 2000. Try finding any fan fiction for her books online. It simply can’t be done.