JK Rowling suing a fan-made website/book?

[yours truly]

im gonna write a book too, its called Hairy Porter and The Order from the Kitchen

bring it Rowling

 

[ShotgunSteven]

Originally posted by: Soundmanred

Originally posted by: ShotgunSteven
If you want to see something else that screams "RIP OFF," read Neil Gaiman's intro for the first trade paperback of The Books Of Magic. If you changed the name of the character he describes and one or two minor details, it sounded a lot like the plot for the Harry Potter series. Boy wizard, dark scruffy hair and glasses even, living in the normal world, gets shipped off to a secret school for wizards. All done before Harry Potter.

Oh, and instead of Dumbledore, he has Merlin.

Doesn't Gaiman just write graphic novels?

He has written several novels as well, some of which have been turned into graphic novels later.

Check out American Gods, or Anansi Boys.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

My gf's friend is writing basically a parody (not funny parody, just alternate universe parody... like the spiderman comics ) of the HP series.. She started it years ago and writes it all by hand in a big notebook. She's at like 1,800 pages now :Q

That girl is wiiierrd at times.. But she's very nice regardless..

 

[jonks]

Originally posted by: rasczak
They probably got permission to sell, whereas this ah heck did not.

AH, now I see why Card is involved.
/nerd

ps. you don't need permission to create works of commentary

 

[AMDZen]

Originally posted by: ShotgunSteven

Originally posted by: Soundmanred

Originally posted by: ShotgunSteven
If you want to see something else that screams "RIP OFF," read Neil Gaiman's intro for the first trade paperback of The Books Of Magic. If you changed the name of the character he describes and one or two minor details, it sounded a lot like the plot for the Harry Potter series. Boy wizard, dark scruffy hair and glasses even, living in the normal world, gets shipped off to a secret school for wizards. All done before Harry Potter.

Oh, and instead of Dumbledore, he has Merlin.

Doesn't Gaiman just write graphic novels?

He has written several novels as well, some of which have been turned into graphic novels later.

Check out American Gods, or Anansi Boys.

Not to mention "Stardust" which was recently made into a movie.

 

[alkemyst]

lots of hardcore Rowling suck ups here that don't realize she ripped someone else off to begin with.

She just has a big enough legal team to screw those she did.

The lexicon is no different than many fan written tomes. It's just Rowling wants her next cash egg and got the idea to steal the fan site's.

This is why many with 'new money' aren't wanted around.

 

[irishScott]

The moment she announced "Dumbledore was Gay" I :roll:ed and lost a decent bit of respect for the lady. Now I've lost most of the rest.

Digression: I liked the HP books and didn't give a shit about Dumbledore's sexuality for the entire series. Why should I care after I've finished reading the books?

In complete agreement with OSC here.

 

[txrandom]

Harry Potter sucks anyways. Why would someone want to make an encyclopedia about it?

 

[Injury]

Originally posted by: alkemyst
lots of hardcore Rowling suck ups here that don't realize she ripped someone else off to begin with.

She just has a big enough legal team to screw those she did.

The lexicon is no different than many fan written tomes. It's just Rowling wants her next cash egg and got the idea to steal the fan site's.

This is why many with 'new money' aren't wanted around.

Well maybe it would have been a smart idea to at least get her blessing or hire a lawyer before talking to a publisher about this sort of thing... especially if you are going to use lots of direct passages from the book in your own book... that's beyond simply referencing things and is more or less just copying.

 

[Injury]

Originally posted by: txrandom
Harry Potter sucks anyways. Why would someone want to make an encyclopedia about it?

Wow, your contribution to this thread is astounding!

 

[oogabooga]

Originally posted by: Injury

Originally posted by: alkemyst
lots of hardcore Rowling suck ups here that don't realize she ripped someone else off to begin with.

She just has a big enough legal team to screw those she did.

The lexicon is no different than many fan written tomes. It's just Rowling wants her next cash egg and got the idea to steal the fan site's.

This is why many with 'new money' aren't wanted around.

Well maybe it would have been a smart idea to at least get her blessing or hire a lawyer before talking to a publisher about this sort of thing... especially if you are going to use lots of direct passages from the book in your own book... that's beyond simply referencing things and is more or less just copying.

I haven't read it, but I doubt it's enough quoting to be copying. Even then considering there is really only one source to get this knowledge from I would imagine there would be lots of quotes, just not enough to be rearrangement of the books in alphabetical order by subject.

I agree with Card to some extent. I think this is a bit hypocritical and well what some would characterize as 'evil'. I think he's a bit extreme in his words, but his points make sense. I feel for the guy who wrote the thing. A Publisher wanted to take his work, they assured him it's fine. At least he has that clause with his publisher about the lawsuit.

Doesn't Rowling have an absurd amount of money? I would just become a recluse and let people do whatever they wanted with Harry Potter. You have some money i'm sure (lots of money) from the remaining movies. People continuing to expand the harry potter universe will lead to immortality, that's something money can't buy.

 

[Q]

I don't understand what the situation is? It's confusing

 

[rh71]

For anyone who has put any effort into something creative, it is never a good feeling to have someone else profit (in any form of the word) directly from it. I mean, it's bad enough watermarks need to be put in place - people still put stuff out there hoping to have others believe it is their work. It's not always a monetary concern.

 

[Injury]

Originally posted by: Quintox
I don't understand what the situation is? It's confusing

J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, is suing the "author" of a Harry Potter encyclopedia for making a for-profit print version of information that was previous a non-profit website. The book details all of the people, places, spells, magic artifacts and so on in the Harry Potter world.

She's suing because it's essentially her work that is being presented in this encyclopedia and she neither gave permission nor stands to gain any compensation for having her creative works used by this author.

http://www.hp-lexicon.org/index-2.html - Give a visit to the site for yourself. You can essentially read this and not even have to bother reading Harry Potter. Visit the "Reader's Guides" section of the page and it essentially rehashes the stories.

 

[thepd7]

I don't really care about any of this, however I would like to note the author of the lexicon agreed to publish it ONLY if the publishers assumed financial responsibility if he was sued. Maybe he is just smart enough to always cover his ass but I think it's more likely he saw this coming because at the best it's borderline copyright infringement and most likely a violation.

 

[DrPizza]

I always wondered if the "Dumbledore is gay" was just to further piss off the religious fanatics who already ordered forbid their church followers to read Harry Potter, and to destroy any books they might already own.

 

[ShotgunSteven]

Originally posted by: DrPizza
I always wondered if the "Dumbledore is gay" was just to further piss off the religious fanatics who already ordered forbid their church followers to read Harry Potter, and to destroy any books they might already own.

Sadly, I know of some people that go out of their way at yard sales, the library (which sells extra donated books for a cheap price to raise funds), et cetera, to buy used Harry Potter books so they can take them home and burn them. Way to keep some poor kid who couldn't afford the new books from learning to love to read! :roll:

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: ShotgunSteven

Originally posted by: DrPizza
I always wondered if the "Dumbledore is gay" was just to further piss off the religious fanatics who already ordered forbid their church followers to read Harry Potter, and to destroy any books they might already own.

Sadly, I know of some people that go out of their way at yard sales, the library (which sells extra donated books for a cheap price to raise funds), et cetera, to buy used Harry Potter books so they can take them home and burn them. Way to keep some poor kid who couldn't afford the new books from learning to love to read! :roll:

wtf? why do that at all? I mean you can dislike a book all you want, but to actually go out and buy books so you can burn it?

 

[LtPage1]

Originally posted by: thepd7
I don't really care about any of this, however I would like to note the author of the lexicon agreed to publish it ONLY if the publishers assumed financial responsibility if he was sued. Maybe he is just smart enough to always cover his ass but I think it's more likely he saw this coming because at the best it's borderline copyright infringement and most likely a violation.

At worst, it'd be borderline copyright infringement, because it's not. Unless England has some really weird copyright laws, he's well within the realm of legality. If her claim held any water at all, you could sue someone just for mentioning (with clear citation) someone else's intellectual property in a book.

 

[MaxDepth]

You edited out the last part of Card's response:

Hey, you all, I am still alive, you know. Come on down to Greensboro, NC and I'll show my 64th novel that mentions the words "Ender" and "game" in it. And you can buy me a sandwich.

Please?

 

[KeithTalent]

Originally posted by: waggy

Originally posted by: Gibsons

Originally posted by: Soundmanred

Originally posted by: ShotgunSteven
If you want to see something else that screams "RIP OFF," read Neil Gaiman's intro for the first trade paperback of The Books Of Magic. If you changed the name of the character he describes and one or two minor details, it sounded a lot like the plot for the Harry Potter series. Boy wizard, dark scruffy hair and glasses even, living in the normal world, gets shipped off to a secret school for wizards. All done before Harry Potter.

Oh, and instead of Dumbledore, he has Merlin.

Doesn't Gaiman just write graphic novels?

He made his name writing comics, Sandman in particular. Books of Magic was written around the same time. (1989)

Sandman is good. weird but good.

Indeed. I read very few comics when I was a kid, but this was one of them and I loved it.

KT

 

[thepd7]

Originally posted by: LtPage1

Originally posted by: thepd7
I don't really care about any of this, however I would like to note the author of the lexicon agreed to publish it ONLY if the publishers assumed financial responsibility if he was sued. Maybe he is just smart enough to always cover his ass but I think it's more likely he saw this coming because at the best it's borderline copyright infringement and most likely a violation.

At worst, it'd be borderline copyright infringement, because it's not. Unless England has some really weird copyright laws, he's well within the realm of legality. If her claim held any water at all, you could sue someone just for mentioning (with clear citation) someone else's intellectual property in a book.

Why would the author be so concerned if it is clearly not infringement? I am sure he had to take less money to make them assume this risk, so if it's so open/close why wouldn't he take the cash and win the lawsuit?

 

[alkemyst]

you can sue anyone really without much...it's just a matter of throwing a big enough paper mess at someone that has to go out and counter it.