(no subject)

[ivyfic]

J.K. Rowling is suing the publisher of the Harry Potter Lexicon. As much as I'm annoyed by overzealous prosecution of copyright infringement, she's got a point. It's not scholarly, it contains no analysis or additional material, it's just her books repackaged alphabetically. Plus, she says, she was gonna do that, so they can't.

The reason I'm posting, though, is because of one of Rowling's statements in the complaint:

"I am extremely appreciative of the support both I and the Harry Potter books have received from the fan community. I enjoy and encourage the free flow of ideas, creativity, commentary, and discussion of the Harry Potter books, including on free-of-charge fan websites, even if it has meant allowing these fan sites to reference copyrighted Harry Potter materials or to create derivative works such as fan fiction or art."

She does appreciate her zealous fans! (Though she doesn't seem to like this fanfic thing, at least she tolerates it.) She's not trying to punish them for liking her books! Would that all authors had (or at least feigned having) her respect for her fanbase, for without them, etc., etc.

Comments

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

She's always been supportive of the fandom that I've heard. Fanfic weirds her out because of the (frankly) perverted things people do to the underage characters in her books (and rightly so). There's a reputation even in fandom that the Harry Potter fic people are seriously disturbed. And it's true: they are. So she's got a pass from me to be skeptical because she's gone above and beyond elsewhere to be supportive.

[edgehopper.livejournal.com]

Looks like a winner of a lawsuit to me (people everywhere are shocked by a copyright infringement plaintiff actually having a solid case!) From what I generally know and the information in that article, it doesn't look like RDR has a leg to stand on.

Some other legal notes:

1. The complaint is bizarrely written relative to a typical complaint, which makes me think that the lawyers at O'Melveny & Meyers (OMM, plaintiff's counsel) wrote it more for the press than for the court.

2. It's not just copyright infringement, it's also a trademark infringement claim ("Harry Potter" and a lot of related phrases are trademarked) and an unfair competition/false advertising claim (they're arguing that the book looks like it was approved by Rowling/WB)

3. Apparently the defendants or defendants' lawyer wrote somewhere that they'd have to get permission from Rowling to avoid liability. What a stupid thing to put in writing. RDR is screwed if this goes to trial.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

As to three--oops on the defendants' part. From what I recall, the other encyclopedia's of fictional universes I've seen were authorized. And she's right--you don't get fair use protection if all you're doing is reorganizing the material. I think publishers are still figuring out their way around publishing content from the web, but this is clear example of a bad idea.

[tirtzah.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've read a good bit about this case. Mostly over on fandom_wank (http://www.journalfen.net/community/fandom_wank/) but I also read a legal analysis about it a while back. From what I've read the Lexicon really doesn't have a leg to stand on. There've been plenty of analytical/critical works published about Harry Potter, but just repackaging the info that's in the books? Yeah that's pushing it.

I like her statement. I've always gotten the impression that she's a little weirded out by fanfic but gets that it's a side effect of an obsessive fandom. And frankly I can't blame her, some fic freaks me the hell out and I'm not an author/creator. But you know, most people in fandom realize that their fic is for fun and not money. It's sort of that weird legal cha-cha that fandom does. But I think she's definitely right for wanting to reign in anyone trying to actually make a profit for themselves off of nothing more than her intellectual property.

(Ooh. An excuse to use a HP icon!)