Comments on: Litigious J.K. Rowling Files Suit to Keep Previously Approved Fan Site from Publishing Book

By: ‘Harry Potter’ Web Series Made by Hardcore Potter Fans with Skills | Simply Boundless Entertainment

Sun, 20 May 2012 17:11:54 +0000

[...] most popular piece of fan-made Harry Potter entertainment produced outside the litigious confines of the JK Rowling empire involves puppet theater, a mysterious ticking noise, and one [...]

By: 'Harry Potter' Web Series Made by Hardcore Potter Fans with Skills

'Harry Potter' Web Series Made by Hardcore Potter Fans with Skills — Sat, 19 May 2012 22:45:53 +0000

[...] most popular piece of fan-made Harry Potter entertainment produced outside the litigious confines of the JK Rowling empire involves puppet theater, a mysterious ticking noise, and one [...]

By: skatergurljubulee

skatergurljubulee — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 17:59:14 +0000

I think that if she had these feelings (or her lawyers did) about her work before, she should have went after the website back in 2000. What I mean is, she can’t be easy on the fansites if they’re making fanfiction for seven years and then when they decide to publish these works and others regarding the Harry Potter world (which isn’t exactly a leap that the site would do this especially since the last book just popped out), then get angry and sue.
She should’ve been like J.R Ward ( I believe she’s like this) and say a big NO to any and all fanfiction and the like so that it prevents this stuff from happening. Ms. Rowling was screwed way back when her people decided to use the lexicon website to promote the upcoming books.
That’s just my opinion.

By: Pyre

Pyre — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 07:53:47 +0000

There’s also the consideration that giving permission to use her material on a not-for-pay website is not the same as giving permission to use her material in a published-for-profit book, especially when the latter would be competing directly with her own next book for readers’ money.

Surely she has the right to make that distinction when giving or withholding her permission to use her material.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 06:23:18 +0000

This post has a lot of useful information beyond the shock reaction. It's not as simple as her suing the book; the lawsuit came after repeated refusals by the publisher to explicitly state the content of the book and almost no contact with the site owner. There's also the issue barely touched-on in that post and not at all in yours about the ownership of the essays and fanart hosted on hp-lexicon. The site owner has allegedly claimed rights to all content on his site, even what isn't his own work. Given the lack of any information on the contents of the book, it's entirely possible that it contains those essays and pieces of artwork, included without the original authors' and artists' permission.

By: Jane

Jane — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 03:12:20 +0000

I think that if defending her copyright (v a trademark which has different legal principles attached, i.e., if you don’t protect it, you can lose your right to it which is not the same as a copyright), was her thing then she wouldn’t have spoken with approval about it before. I.e, she should have had the site shut down when it started back in 2000. It bothers me that she and her publisher and movie company decide that its fine for them to benefit from the hardwork of the site in promoting Rowling but the site can’t earn any money from the actual work they put into it.

I really hope that this is fought because I think a case like this could make good law.

By: MCHalliday

MCHalliday — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 19:59:40 +0000

Would allowing RDR to use the the info for profit set some precedent that would open the door for other things?

If we go with that, it still doesn’t justify a lawsuit against against organisers of a religious event in India based on a lifesize replica of Hogwarts Castle.

By: DS

DS — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 17:23:01 +0000

Coca Cola successfully maintained their trademark for yea on how many years by jumping on any possible infringement no matter how small, then compiling a book of all of the cases they won and donating a copy to every law school library.

Don’t know if it ever hurt them but I definitely don’t have the warm fuzzies about Coke. On the other hand a children’s author needs to be a bit more careful about their public image.

By: Sarah McCarty

Sarah McCarty — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 16:15:43 +0000

Would allowing RDR to use the the info for profit set some precedent that would open the door for other things?

If so, I can see why she’d have to be vigilant.

By: MCHalliday

MCHalliday — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 15:20:43 +0000

Perhaps Rowling has advisors proposing these lawsuits as a means to protect her interests and she is stupidly going along with them; I’d like to believe a woman with her billions couldn’t be so incredibly mean and greedy.