In this whole case I have always been on Steve’s side. I think most of the people backing Jo have used the Lexicon only once in a while, because if they had really used it they’d know what a formidable it is.
Even if Jo had the law with her, I would support Steve, because Jo is simply forbidding her fans to have a decent encyclopedia until she writes her own and as she doesn’t seem to be much interested in doing it for a while, that would be at least something like five years until we have that.
Because writing an encyclopedia is not creative writing, is not something like writing the books she wrote until now. It is much more work, and of a different nature. Steve has compiled all of his work for years and years. I don’t suppose she will be able to write anything that can be a rival to Steve’s book in less than three years.
I doubt Jo has really anything comparable. If she had she wouldn’t commit so many repeated mistakes as she does, for instance in the case of the years of Dumbledore’s and Fred’s death, both written wrongly in her website, incompatible with what is written in the books (Dumbledore died in 1997 and Fred in 1998, if Nick’s 500th anniversary of death was in October of second year and he died in 1492.
She messed up years and dates about Charlie playing Quidditch and makes a lot of other mistakes re: the time-line. That means that she hasn’t really worked very hard on the time-line. Steve went much farther.
The same can be said about some spells and Ministry organisms that appear with slightly different names.
That means that she will really need to work very hard on getting her facts together and revising them if she wants to do anything nearly as reliable as what Steve gave us.
Some of you may think it isn’t important. If so that only means you can’t really appreciate Steve’s work and then your opinion about the issue is biased. You are just supporting an author you admire without really understanding what is Steve’s work, and if you don’t understand it, you can’t judge if it is or it isn’t competing with hers.
Rowling herself has said it: The Lexicon is a tool for the obsessive mind. For those people this book would be very important, and would be very importantant NOW. I doubt she will ever write something equivalent in terms of obsessiveness, and if she does, it will be too late.
But additionally I think this compilation is a different work, creative work, but creative in a totally different way than hers. Its creativity lies in the ways of organizing the material. So I have always had doubts if the copyrights should be extended that much.
I’ve always had an idea that his work was a different kind of work and that her copyright couldn’t be so extended, otherwise a lot of the things I read they after day wouldn’t be possible to write. But as I’m not a lawyer and not an American, I was not very sure. But now it seems that my point of view has some firm basis, if it’s shared by a Stanford professor and a man that writes his opinion in The New York Times.
Yes, she created the world, but she created it with a lot of inconsistencies and Steve spent years organizing all the information in such a way that these inconsistencies now are completely clear to those familiar with his work.
I also think it is completely hypocritical to give an award to the site and then say its contents can’t be published. If the book is competition for her own, the site would also be even more, because we can access it for free.
And it’s even more hypocritical to say that she wants to preserve her charities. If she was really concerned about charity, why didn’t she even begin to work on the book? don’t the charities need the money now? She has millions and millions of dollars and everything she touches can be transformed in money, why don’t she give other things to those charities now? I can only think that she is using the charities to manipulate the fans and the judge and that she doesn’t want Steve to publish his book (after allowing a lot of other encyclopedias be published), because his work is really serious and exposes her mistakes.
Having not read the legal documentation rather than the synopsis of it, I chose not to have an opinion of this case. The legal system will do it’s job.
However, anyone who has read the pensive section of the HP-Lexicon will know that their is a significant amount of intrepretation on the part of the page editor to produce an adequate synopsis or interpretation of HP series topics. The development of the Elder Wand page would certainly be an example that analysis of Deathly Hallows was indeed necessary rather than being a demonstration of straight information regurgitation.
This whole issue saddens me. I really enjoy all of the works I’ve read that have been in some way inspired by the Harry Potter series. But, perhaps not as much as I’ve enjoyed the original works.
This whole case is just getting sicker and sicker. My heart goes out to Jo. I’ll be quite upset if the judge does not rule in favor of WB/JKR not only because I think that she has every right to the series and the intellectual property thereof, but because I myself am working on a fantasy series and the precedent that would be set by a RDR/Vanderark victory does not set well with me. That’s going to have to entail an entire new clause in contracts, new stipulations in copyright law—in short a massive legal headache for a lot of people.
Furthermore, I think it’s an incredibly pig-headed move for RDR to attempt to subpeona the notes that Scholastic/Bloomsbury/Jo still have that would be included in her encyclopedia. What is there to be gained by that? Honestly, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if that was just an attempt to gain information that wasn’t already in the book to be included.
I don’t know if anyone’s heard of it, but a while back there was a book called The Sorcerer’s Companion that was a perfect example of a perfectly legal companion book. It was an encyclopedia of magical objects that appear in Harry Potter and gave the folklore roots for them. That’s the kind of perfectly legal scholarly commentary that WB/Jo allow. If anyone hasn’t read the exhibits in the documents, find the articles Melissa posted (and Melissa, you absolutely rock) and read the PDFs that show contents from the Lexicon book—there’s no synthesis of data there, just rehashing.
The fact of the matter is you can’t take copyrighted material that you’ve posted on the internet and attempt to sell it if the copyright is not in your name. Look at anything related to Harry Potter that’s officially liscensed you’ll find something along the lines of “Harry Potter and all names…etc. Copyright WB. HP Publishing Rights: JKR.” It’s the same as if someone self published a novel over the internet, another party cannot print out hat information freely available and attempt to profit from it for charity or gain because it is not theirs, they have no ownership over it and the Lexicon book adds nothing.
Well seems Steve Vander Ark is his own worst enemy. After that statement does he really expect he has any kind of place in the fandom? If he could draw a crowd at a convention now it would be for all the wrong reasons.
But in this whole thing, every time he has opened mouth it has been to insert foot!
@ Felipe – so sorry didnt know I’ve only ever took French-LOL, and thank you KimberlyAnn that is very thoughtful of you and nice, it makes me happy to know that Im not alone on here and that there are others that care about me, you Mountain Voilet and other as well – Thanks!
Lilyp, just look at the definition of plagiarism (what Steve and RDR Books are doing). Even if you take something and reorganize it for 5 years working 7 days a week and 12 a day in a 2 foot by 2 foot room and with no ventilation… no matter what, you are still stealing, regardless of how much work you put into it. If you plan on robbing a bank for 5 years, when you go rob it you can’t just say “well, I planned this heist and worked very hard for 5 years to do it, so now I can’t be punnished! I worked for the money I’m stealing!” It just doesn’t work that way.
Have to agree with Steve on this one. The books are finished. What happens from now on belongs to the public. True, no one can write stories using these characters and situations without Ms. Rowling’s permisssion. In that, she will always have control. But anything written about the Potterverse from here on out should be permitted.
Think about it. How is what Steve doing different than what has been done for other great works of art. How many encyclopedias are there about Shakespeare, The Bronte Sisters, Hemingway, Twain, Tolkein…
Were they alive, I’m certain those authors would be royally p.o.’d about some of the books written about their works too. But once the work was done – discussion and catalouging belong to the world.
Personally, if the lexicon book, comes out, I won’t buy it – I like the internet one that can be updated right away without publishing a new edition. But I think if he wants to put out a hard copy of the book, let him do it. DOESN’T MEAN YOU HAVE TO BUY IT.
But I was going to buy Rowling’s book.
Do we have to wait until she’s dead like the others before people can write what they want about her books? That’s just not right.
LilyP I think you may have overlooked the small amount of 2 million pounds (I think thats what it was) Jo raised for charity for a book that she HAND WROTE and had absolutely no obligation to create, ‘The Tales of Beedle the Bard’. I also think that you are overlooking the fact that she has most likely donated some of her personal “millions and millions of dollars” in recent times anonymously as she has done in the past. I would also suggest you stop worshiping SVA for his “creative work” where he used his so-called skills to rip off JKR’s work and claim it as his own. Steve, whose only skill is free time, is obviously in the wrong and should stop trying to seek the centre stage and profits from the reflected success of JKR that he thoroughly does not deserve.
Maven, other encyclopedias offer opinions, explanations, or investigative work about the works of art they are writing about; they don’t just copy and paste inormaiton and re-print it in alphabetical order and call it their own work… that’s what Steve VA and RDR Books are doing.
If Steve thinks it is ok to reproduce JKR book in a different format and make it more like his website then why can’t I just copy his website rework it into yet another format a publish that? Then he would sue me and I could tell him he is trying to completely control his website and “That’s quite a huge power grab on his part” . I am being sarcastic here but really does Steve not see how crazy his statement is. This is Jo’s world and her right to control it should not be in question. If these were my stories I would come after everyone who wants to use them illegally. Books can be written about Harry Potter that is not illegal like Melissa’s book like Mugglenet’s book. The difference is Melissa book is not a Harry potter story or encyclopedia it seems to be a take on the fandom and her role in it and Mugglenet’s book that was published was a book 7 prediction book both books are examples of books that would be allowed but there are certain books that can not be published and it seems that Steve’s falls into that category or Jo would not be so adamant about stopping it.
Sure down the road many many years from now the copy right will expire and others will be able to write books with these characters, like all the Jane Austen sequels that are out there, but that is a long way off and many of us won’t be around to see it (thank goodness).
What it boils down to is this: Jo Rowling knows exactly how much work there is in the Lexicon. That’s why she has said she would postpone her own book for 10 years. Does anyone really think she wants to sit down and analyze every character after writing seven books about them? Or every spell, place, and creature? If she started working on that now, she would have to spend years getting it all together, and couldn’t work on anything else. She’s just not going to do that right now, but she doesn’t want anyone else to write anything either. That’s what she basically says – don’t write anymore encyclopedias.
I don’t see her books as “sacred” except in the hearts of people who love to read them. For everything else, she and the WB have to follow the law of the land like everyone else. If they don’t like the ruling, they will tie this up in appeals anyway, which is their legal right.
SVA has a lot of nerve. I enjoyed listening to him on Canon Canundrums, because he was so knowledgeable and article. But now I feel strangely duped, because the public personality on Pottercasts just doesn’t jive with this whole lawsuit and his galling letter to the fanzine. I am also annoyed at the editorial in the NYTimes. It sounds like it completely misrepresents the facts. Thanks to Leaky, WE the fans know the full story, but it bugs that the wider public might get the wrong idea.
I feel disgruntled. I’m totally on Jo’s side, for the record.
Can I please correct those who believe that the Scottish Book will DEFINITELY be written or published in 10 years time. Jo was just giving an example, saying it might take her 2 or maybe 10 or maybe even 50 years… Her point being she’s not writing it right now and she doesn’t have a deadline. This means she can publish it in a year and a half if she wants or maybe even never! She did not certify it will be published in 10 years. Don’t speculate based on that.
I just want to echo nearly everyone else and say…”WHAT WERE YOU THINKING STEVE
“
I used to feel kind of bad for him, and have said it in previous posts, but now I am just dismayed and sickened by this swelling ego. I can’t believe his lawyers even let him make a statement, especially that one! What a weird choice of words and venue. If I wasn’t personally boycotting the lexicon right now, I’d stroll over to see what he has posted there. If someone else goes, I won’t judge you—but I’d like an update.
ps. @ BellaSnape. I’m new at this too and probably have made similar mistakes. Have a great day :)