For Morton K, who said “The trouble with the law is that there are no hard and fast rules on how much of the original needs to be included before it becomes infringement – 10%, 20%?”
I have read, in U.S. fair use conventions, the general rule of thumb is that if more than 30% of your words are not original to you (i.e. your proposed work is more than 30% quotation), you do not fall under fair use. It’s not, I believe, a rigid formula, but generally, it allows the commentor latitude to use quotes as examples and to illustrate points but contrains the commentor to contribute a significant amount of original material.
It sounds like there is no original commentary/discussion/analysis in the Lexicon book.
I’m still amazed that the more we learn about this lawsuit and the ill-actions of SVA, some people just do. not. get. it.
What a headache for Jo.
Money, money, money….Lexicon wants money, JK wants money, WB wants money!!!!!
http://www.slate.com/id/2181776/
The article’s author (Tim Wu) did shoddy research and is too bent on putting forward his anti-international copyright agenda (http://www.slate.com/id/2084960) to speak to the actual facts of this lawsuit. He makes multiple statements that are misleading or not true (he seems to have read RDR’s website and not much else). There are intellectuals that believe that copyright is too restrictive and should be either abolished or greatly cut back. The great thing about Melissa’s reporting is that it is factual only, so ideological backwash doesn’t confuse the issue.
This really saddened me! As I read it I felt that SVA went forward with it out of revenge, not being hired an all!
Even if this book gets published, I won’t buy it. I rather buy the book from JK (the real author) and have the money go to charity…not some greedy publishing co. and SVA’s pockets!!!
There has been a lot written here that I agree with, but I think Morton K and performingmonkey have said it best. Regardless of it all, the material is JKR’s. The book in question does not add to the material in any way, only repackages it. That makes it infringement. And I agree, it doesnt matter if she’s going to publish her own book (ie: the Scottish Book), it’s her world. I actually LOL’d when someone above complained that JKR was being a “control freak”. Um… yeah! She is, and she should be. She spent 17 years of her life creating this world, it’s hers to control. I dont understand why that’s so hard to understand.
Sure, SVA is probably a nice guy (although, I never did like that statement he made at a convention that said something like “she’s done, it’s our world now”), but how nice he is, and how hard he’s worked do not translate into having rights to copy and profit off of someone elses work.
Thanks, TLC and Melissa, for your continued professionalism.
Ugh. This is just.. ugh. I despise hearing about this whole case. It’s ridiculous on both sides. Especially when I logically think that JKR probably didn’t have all of her info as well organized as Steve did; she used the lexicon! And, I mean, she probably would’ve asked for his help on making it a collaboration effort to get her own encyclopedia out within the next few years. But, now with him trying to produce one it’s disappointing that there probably won’t be an actual one for another decade. What a nuisance of a situation. sigh
Worst part:
9. A rule against JKR/WB would harm the fan community by “necessitating more monitoring and restriction of fan activity by copyright owners afraid of compromising their rights against infringers.”
Did you catch that ‘restriction of fan activity’ part?
I hate being right….
AddyDog: I am sure I saw it suggested somewhere that some other infringing books quietly go out of print permanently when WB find out about them, since it is easier for all concerned to stop them by agreement rather than use the legal process.
laughing man: Yes, it has been a common interpretation of an RDR win in the lawsuit that copyright owners will be forced to clamp down on fan site use of their material so as to maintain control over what books etc. are sold.
The other thing is, I went to a forum that SVA/RDR Books held at my University back in early December and SVA openly admitted that there was no original content (No fan art, essays, etc.) only the encyclopedic section of the site and that there was really nothing special about the book version and even said that the website was still, what he considered, a better source for information. RDR was not happy about this in Q&A and at the beginning of the forum he went so far as to imply that he was going to sue back for harassment if they lost.
“Moreover, I have made and kept notes in connection with each of the Harry Potter books, which I have recently begun to augment with additional materials that I intend to include in my own companion guide.”
She’s working on the Scottish book!! Excellent.
Libby, Jo claims to have used the Lexicon for checking up a few facts when she was traveling and didn’t have her own notes handy. That’s all.
Perhaps she will need some help with the Scottish book, but as she says herself, there are people at both Bloomsbury and Scholastic who has ¨kept notes. People whom she knows and has worked with for several years. There is no reason she would ask a total stranger for help, dedicated fan or not.
Sorry to side-track the conversation, but can anyone explain to me why JKR’s encyclopedia is called the “Scottish Book”? Not understanding is just bugging me. :-)
I know one thing for sure. JK must surely reckon that Steve Vander Ark is such a fantastic name to use in a future book. ”..A tall shadowy figure approached them with elegant but authoritative strides. He wore a long dark coat whose tail swayed side to side with each step and a hat that casted a shadow on his face. As he approached the now trembling youths, the stranger said ‘you will come with me’ ‘who..who are you?’ ‘I am Orsen Vander Ark and you will ask no more questions’ ” Oh oh, I may get done for copyright infringement by RDR books for using Vander Ark in Comments fiction.