I read a small update article in the Times, which I can’t find any more, but the Judge urged JKR to settle out of court. The two reasons were that there were bound to be a load of appeals, and the reason for this was that the case ventured into areas not currently covered but current law.
But what really strikes me is that if JKR calls these book worthless, how many of her fans will buy them?
A proper analysis of the series and the origins of all the characters and names is a lot more fascinating than a bunch of quotes from the novels.
This guy has basically made a glossary of quotations, while JKR herself will make a genuine detailed reference book.
You’ve read both? :dubious:
No, I’m commenting on the claims made in the case.
But I have visited the website it’s going to be based around.
“91.41% Rowling material” is very vague. Note that it does not say “Direct quotation from novels”. Since we don’t know what standard they used – direct quotation, Rowling-created material (as opposed to giants, dwarves or magic in general, which is common), or what, the data point is useless.
Aside: What I find interesting is that the copyright law is really quite clear in this area. I have to wonder what motivated Rowling to sue, or for the author of the encyclopedia to force a court case. I’m being deliberately ambivilent because I don’t know the facts behind the case, but it seems to me that, if direct quotation is a problem, that a number of editing changes would have allowed the project to move forward without infringing on Rowling’s property.
Also, her concerns that the encyclopedia would affect sales of her work seems a non-starter, since a) a Rowling-penned work would garner enormous publicity; b) she can provide background information that doesn’t exist outside her office. Look at how much stuff Tolkien generated before LOTR. Rowling’s gotta have at least one book’s worth of background material; c) how much money does she need anyway?
The book is apparently going to be taken directly from the website (which doesn’t even have an entry for “ogre”)- when Warner Bros. asked RDR for a rough draft of the book to see how much was taken directly from the copyrighted work, RDR sent back a rude response basically saying “just press ‘print’ on the website, ask someone if you don’t know how.” I’m sure someone more adept than me at Harry Potter could look at the site and compare some examples to Rowling’s own words. (Warner apparently did do some comparisons to the texts of the Lexicon and their copyrighted work: besides the charts, labeled “Exibit A,” the filing of evidence also states there are various papers which were introduced in court comparing the text of the Lexicon to other Rowling-penned works: the seven books, the two charity textbooks, the Daily Prophet newsletters, and the Electronic Arts wizard cards, as well as an annotated manuscript of the complete Lexicon. This must mean that Warner got a hold of it somehow and made the comparisons.)
The Leaky Cauldron now has the transcripts for all three days of testimony, thanks to Stanford Law School.
Ken Jennings (the Jeopardy! guy) has an interesting take on the whole thing.