A few years back a woman was sueing claiming that the Harry Potter books had been plagerised from a book that she wrote. Does anyone remember the suit? Do you know if it was ever settled? Who won?
Rowling won. More details can be found here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/2268024.stm
" Ms Stouffer accused Rowling of lifting the term Muggles, a name given to non-magical humans in Harry Potter but used to describe mythical characters in her book which was published in the mid-80s.
In Stouffer’s The Legend of Rah and the Muggles, which features a character named Larry Potter, the muggles are little people who care for two orphaned boys who magically turn their dark homeland into a happy place.
She also claimed to have written a colouring book entitled Larry Potter and His Best Friend Lilly.
But a summary judgement by the District Court of the Southern District of New York ruled that Ms Stouffer lied to the court and doctored evidence to support her claims. "
Oh, and that suit was one of the reasons why book number five was delayed…
The article didn’t get it quite right - “The Legend of Rah and the Muggles” was a completely separate book from “Larry Potter.” I don’t think the “Larry Potter” books ever saw publication; “The Legend of Rah and the Muggles” has been published twice, both times by vanity presses.
It’s even worse than that: AFAIK (and I’ve been following this case), Larry never had a last name in the original books. When Stouffer arranged to have them published to cash in on the whole plagiarism scandal (along with “Legend of Rah and the Muggles,” a truly atrocious book), she added “Potter” to Larry’s name. The original book (which I don’t believe was published prior to the scandal) was called “Larry and His Best Friend Lilly.” For that matter, I believe the original vanity-press publication of “The Legend of Rah and the Muggles” was titled “The Legend of RAH.”