Harry Potter Lexicon: JK Rowling hates it, what do you think?
Filed under: News | By: Daniel
Posted on: March 1, 2008 | 4 Comments
When it comes to Harry Potter, fans love to follow the story and some like Steven Vander Ark have set up websites with information on the Potter universe.
JK Rowling feels this fan has taken things to far as Steven Vander Ark wants to publish his unauthorized reference work, “Harry Potter Lexicon.”
JK Rowling has filed a lawsuit in Manhattan to stop Harry Potter Lexicon being published, because Rowling does not like the idea of the would-be publisher and RDR Books trying to make money from Steven’s fan-based Web site.
JK Rowling said, “I am deeply troubled by the portrayal of my efforts to protect and preserve the copyrights I have been granted in the Harry Potter books”.
Steven Vander Ark made this comment, “Like a reference book or a guide to literature, it’s a long-recognized genre. … We are not replacing the novel or taking away the market.”
Should a fan be able to publish reference work in book form?
Via CBS News
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this thing is stupid i mean J.K.Rowling is the one who invented Harry Potter and these people want to cash in on something that is very special to her. we should respect her wishes. i write stories and i have an emotional bond with the characters and plot ect. i would hate it if people use my stories for their own gain.
J.K.Rowling is the best author ever and i cannot wait to see what else she has. we have only seen the fantasy part of her and i eagerly await her other books. she has my full support i would be angry to.
Should a fan be able to publish reference work in book form?
This question itself is misguided and misleading.
Of course, literary criticism and reference works are acceptable.
What is NOT acceptable is plagiarism. A book without original content included, a book that simply shuffles and alphabetizes copyrighted work - is UNacceptable and a breach of copyright. The proposed Lexicon book is clearly no more than retyping someone else’s work in a new order. This is NOT original work. It is plagiarism.
Although J.K created the Harry Potter world, she also chose to share it with others. That world holds a very special place in millions of peoples psyche around the globe and has touched and changed many peoples lives. It certainly made my life more magical for many years. I personally think it is greedy and selfish of J.K to share this world with us and profit so enormously from it but forbid anyone else’s expresion of the world she has created in our minds. It is obvious that a lot of her characters and themes are based on mythological ones, and so it could be argued that J.K stole those. And J.K has not even acknowledged in her books the cultures, characters and mythologies that she took information from. J.K has profited from other culture’s important figures and mythologies without acknowledgement of those cultures so it is laughably hypocritical of her to acuse others of profiting from her work. God knows how many people have profitted from the Harry Potter world - from Warner Bros. and Lego to the little home business who makes Harry Potter bedroom signs. But J.K chooses to single out her number 1 fan to sue. I see J.K as having and wanting more money than sense. I see this encyclopedia as a fan’s expression of a world he so came to love - he acknowledges it is not his own and has never claimed it is, which is more than what J.K has done in her books with her stolen stories. I have a number of Harry Potter books that have been written by other people. And non of them as informative or as thoughtfully wirtten as the Lexicon information. Maybe J.K is jelous that Lexicon thought of a much better ending than she did, which in my opinion they did!
Poor Steve…sucks to be sued by someone you admire so much! The Lexicon is a great resource and I hope it works out.