In this MSNBC opinion piece, author Helen A.S. Popkin, who appears to think that J.K. Rowling is in the wrong, advises the author to settle the case (as also suggested by the judge), explains how the Internet and the Creative Commons license have changed creative practice, and likens Steve Vander Ark to Harry Potter:
“Then there’s that kid himself, Mr. Vander Ark. (Yeah, I know he’s 50, but he’s still a kid.) Dude gave up “Star Trek” for you! And now you’re playing a game of weepy mental chase with a kid who made a Voldemort reference on the stand … which of course, makes him Harry Potter. You’re suing Harry Potter!”
The editorial links to another opinion piece on Newsvine:
“Dear J.K. Rowling,
Suing one of your biggest fans ever is starting to make you look like a crazy person. This is something you might want to think twice about, since this here lawsuit is fixin’ to have ramifications on copyrights and the InterWeb for years and years to come.”
I’m waiting whole day to read something about the trial here on Leaky!
Hm…lady is weirdo! I agree what she says about Mr.Vander(funny:D),but I disagree about what she said about Jo! Don’t you dare to call Jo a crazy person!
I’m flabbergasted (or how you may spell it) that some autors thinks it’s right to copy some work of another
I stand by JKRowling.. Not because I think she’s just great (what is actually true) but just because it’s pure plagiarisme of SVA.. nothing more, nothing less..
Of course, I’m not the judge, neither a Trelawney, so I can’t predict what the outcome will be.. I can just hope..
Folks, I said this before, I am saying it now: We do not want JKR /WB to win this one. It will hurt creativity & stifle intellectual freedom. If JKR want to write an encylopedia, do so. If it is better, it will out sell the other one. If not … better luck next time.
Do not take it it personally either. This is mainly about $$, keeping it for WB. Copywrites use to expire in 7 years, then they extended it to the life of the auther. Now it is 99 years. JKR has made her $$ writing a wonderful set of books. WB wants to keep HP as their cash cow.
She keeps calling SVA Jo’s biggest fan in that Newsvine post…. I’m pretty sure her “biggest fan” should have backed out when a long time ago. Although I really don’t hold any malice or ill-will to SVA, I thought what she said was pretty stupid.
Also at Ed, maybe I’m being a little naive here, but I don’t know if it would effect the HP fandom either way. If Jo is right that more people will try to write their own HP books that would infringe on copyrights it could get a little bad. But I really don’t think she wants to hurt the online fandom, but you can take this with a grain of salt anyway because I’m definitely not sure on this case or the outcome either way.
Also, this is something that I would take as not being totally for money for WB. First off, Jo is definitely a part of it, and she knows she has plenty of money and just wants to give to charity now. Also I don’t think the Lexicons book would hurt the Scottish book that bad, since most fans that would buy the Lexicons’ would also want the new info from the Scottish book.
I’ve always had respect for the Lexicon-such a great place to veiw time lines and spells-it was creative-but don’t you think that the Harry Potter universe has a right to expand-Ever since i read the first book and caught the Salem Institute in the fourth one, i’ve been writing a novel about a wizard in the states who goes undercover overseas to protect an assination attempt on Hermonie Granger, which leads to a greater plan involving Harry and Ginny’s children, by a cult of evil wizards known as “The order of the Snake”, will that be wrong? will Jo sue or encourage me?I think Jo has every reason to be angry, but didn’t Jo recognized the site once? I just don’t get it- I hope a resolvement can be reached. Long Live Potter, Long Live Rowling and Long Live The Lexicon!
I really don’t know why some people seem to be finding it so hard to distinguish between fan-fic, books with commentry and analysis and what SVA seems to have done, which is take all of JKR’s work, including phrases and sentances used in her published, copyrighted work, mix it up and try to make a profit out of it. really.
I think your book would get the attention of Jo/WB’s lawyers very quickly. Anything published for profit that uses Jo’s characters, without a license/permission, would violate copyright, IMO.
The chances are that publishers will reject your novel on the basis that it is copyright infringing. Wait, try RDR, not only would they probably publish it, they’d indemnify you against lawsuits.
Or what you should do is finish your novel, then change the names so that they are no longer JKR characters. Then you would probably be ok, since it sounds like your plot has little resemblance to HP.
Malfoy spent much of their next Potions class doing dementor imitations across the dungeon; Ron finally cracked and flung a large, slippery crocodile heart at Malfoy, which hit him in the face and caused Snape to take fifty points from Gryffindor.
Wow.