JKR's suit against RDR Books

[pegkerr]

I'm really sorry to hear about all this. I certainly like the Harry Potter Lexicon, and I consider Steve Vander Ark a personal friend; Rob and I worked with him on the HPEF Board of Directors. But geez, if praetorianguard is correct about the sequence of events, then as a holder of copyrights myself, I have to agree with praetorianguard. I don't think that RDR Books or Steve have a legal leg to stand on, and they're gonna lose this case. As well they should. No matter how much they bluster.

Personally, I am going to find this all extremely painful to watch.

(A good chunk of the complaint and quite a bit of discussion over at The Leaky Cauldron here.)

Comments

[folk.livejournal.com]

Note: I'm not a lawyer; I don't even dress up as one on festive occasions or for furtive nookie, so this is in no way legal advice. :)

Obviously, none of us who aren't Steve, RDR or his/their people know what exactly is being published, because the exact nature of the book hasn't been released. However, assuming that it's essentially a printed, indexed tree-ware copy of the Lexicon, JKR and her publishers have lots of reasons to object. Peg linked to praetorianguard's excellent post that explains why the rights-holders are objecting, but they basically boil down to:

1. It's JKR's material, rearranged. Most companions or compendiums include some analysis, critique or backgrounds that add to the story rather than just repackaging it. Many of her invented terms are themselves trademarked (see all of the merchandise with a little TM after every other word), so it's hard to see how someone else is allowed to use them in the same arena.

2. It's confusing. See the proposed UK cover, compared with the UK adult edition of HBP. Same font and style, and that's potentially an attempt to pass off someone else's book as JKR's.

A note on 1: many fan works are not infringing because they are transformative works: in other words, there is substantial new material and situations in the new work. Think Gregory Maguire's Wicked, or the musical of the same name, and how that's allowed to coexist with L. Frank Baum's books and the movie The Wizard of Oz. A fan work where, say, Draco Malfoy is a noir LA private investigator would be pretty darned transformative. Also, the vast majority of fan works are not for profit (or at least nobody's making megabucks off them -- advertising does sometimes exceed hosting and admin fees for fan sites, for example, but it's not a huge amount).

[pinguthegreek.livejournal.com]

On point two, John. I wouldn't see it as an attempt to pass someone else's book off as hers. It's an attempt to make the book seem like it's legitimate and it's very much looking to people who buy the adult versions of the books.

I know he can't say anything because it's all in the hands of the lawyers, but I would love to know what made Steve think it was OK to go ahead with this being published.

[folk.livejournal.com]

Well, "passing off' is what the legal terminology is, I think. Basically, if my gran goes into a bookstore, sees seven books with HARRY POTTER AND THE ________________ and one that says HARRY POTTER LEXICON in the same font, then she's likely to be confused; that's "passing off". Remember way back when that first unauthorised HP companion book came out, and it was bright purple and didn't have the HP fonts or anything? That's why they did that, and I can't figure out why anybody thought doing it this way was okay.

Ditto.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

I hadn't even heard that Steve was planning to publish a paper Lexicon until I heard about the suit. I was quite shocked. I can't imagine what Steve was thinking.

[folk.livejournal.com]

Me neither, on both counts.

[legionseagle.livejournal.com]

Also, if it is "a printed, indexed tree-ware copy of the Lexicon" (and the comments made by the publisher including the preposterous "if you don't know how to print..." one suggest that it is) then it contains a lot of articles written by fans who did not give consent when posting to the site for the republication of their work, for gain, at a later date and in a different format. And as one of the essayists concerned, I'm pretty put out about it.

[folk.livejournal.com]

I can quite imagine; this does go back to the "what was Steve thinking?" question.

[pinguthegreek.livejournal.com]

Interesting point to consider : reading the comments on the Leaky Cauldron story, one of the posters mentions that Steve left his job three weeks ago. That could only be because he's either found another job or there was something that made it impossible for him to stay in his job. He has to have money to pay the bills from somewhere. Oh and he just so happens to be involved in a book version of his very respected Lexicon......

I'm just pointing a few things out. I just find it hard to believe that a grown adult would agree to publish anything to do with something so popular just out of the goodness of his or her own heart. And it's not like he's a young naive grown up either..... ldea

Please don't think I'm saying he's a money grabbing wotsit. But it will be interesting to find out what his side of things turns out to be.

[legionseagle.livejournal.com]

Though, to be fair, he has now indicated that there are no essays in there.

[pinguthegreek.livejournal.com]

So......that still begs the question of how he could justify what he's doing on an ethical level. I think that it's a no brainer that there is a legal case to answer.