Dismissal Requested for Copyright Infringement Case Against Bloomsbury, J. K. Rowling
J.K. Rowling
Posted by: Edward
July 29, 2010, 01:36 PM
As readers will recall, last February the estate of the late Adrian Jacobs added Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling to a lawsuit against UK Potter publisher Bloomsbury, charging copyright infringement of a 1987 work The Adventures of Willy the Wizard-No 1 Livid Land. The lawsuit, which Ms Rowling related she was "saddened" by, claims the author "copied substantial parts of the work of the late Adrian Jacobs, The Adventures of Willy the Wizard-No 1 Livid Land, and that Bloomsbury in selling the books have infringed the Estate's copyright."
Legal representatives for Ms Rowling continued to refute the claims on before the High Court in London on Wednesday, where they petitioned for the case to be dismissed before trial.
The Telegraph reports:
Ms Rowling "did not copy the claimants work and there are no grounds for thinking otherwise", the Financial Times reported him as saying. Mr Baldwin said the books were widely different and claimed it was fanciful to suggest Harry Potter was based on Willy The Wizard.
"We do not hold back – we say the allegations are a disgrace ... and should never have been made," he told Mr Justice Kitchin, who has been asked to give summary judgment on whether the claim should proceed to trial.
Mr Baldwin told the court that Willy the Wizard “was very, very badly written” and alleged the claimants’ website described it as "almost unreadable".
Many thanks, Erna!
52 Comments
1061 Points
I’ve just read that it only has 36 pages, no wonder it doesn’t make any sense!
3777 Points
willy sucks i wish voldie would AK that pos
49 Points
so stupid, jk would never.
49 Points
so stupid, jk would never.
294 Points
wow! are people actually that stupid?
I LOVE YOU JO!
1486 Points
some people are just jealous of the potter fame achieved by jkr..and that is the reason behind such probes..
i hope jkr will get rid of it quickly as possible..:-)
5207 Points
Such mean people. Go on JO prove them liars
5439 Points
Go on JO prove them liars.
42 Points
J.K. Rowling has managed to become a (US dollar) billionaire from being poor single mother. Why can’t people like these learn from her success and celebrate it instead of trying to leech money off her?
41 Points
IMO, everyone is trying to get a piece of the HP pie, no matter the lengths it takes to achieve it. They’ll lie, cheat, and steal to get all the glory they can. Even with the case dismissed, they still have the notoriety of challenging Jo. It’s pathetic.
314 Points
It’s just pathetic, especially since they have this legal obligation to RESPOND to a lawsuit like this. People like that really just deserve to be ignored. There’s absolutely no way that “Adrian Jacobs’ estate” has the slightest chance of winning this case. They have no foundation to go on. What are they going to say — “Jacobs’ created the concept of wizards, and he also created the concept of death…” I’ve gone to the website and tried to read it; it IS terribly written and the story doesn’t make any sense. (But of course, it was only a lead-up to Harry Potter! Just the ideas! Rowling only contributed the writing talent!)
Rawr. This makes me really angry.
3121 Points
just someone wanting to cash in on Jo’s success. They are jealous… reading into things that are just not there.
156 Points
I don’t believe it for one minute that Jo would be a book thief copy cat. Some ideas really just pop into you’re head and Harry Potter is an extensive series not only of 7 books of others that explain the back stories and in between stories. It doesn’t seem plausible that all of this could come from a unknown book that “was very, very badly written” and alleged the claimants’ website described it as “almost unreadable”.
3987 Points
If she had copied from that book, I doubt the Harry Potter series would be as successful and well written as they actually are. No offense Willy the Wizard ;)
818 Points
Thank Allah she has lawyers to deal with such headaches as these people.
I’ve just read that it only has 36 pages, no wonder it doesn’t make any sense!