Fair use is something different than writing about a text.
Fair use isn't a concrete law, unfortunately. It's just a convincing argument to get around the copyright laws. That's why it doesn't seem to have restrictions, only guidelines on how to make the argument convincing.
I certainly haven't seen what this encyclopedia is doing (nor do I care, in point of fact), but if it's accurately called an encyclopedia then it is simply an informational source that will not contain extensive direct quotations from the Harry Potter books.
The thing is that that's the main argument that JKR and the WB have made strong in their case as to what the lexicon book is. Despite RDR eventually conceding that point, they still argue that it's fair use anyway and out of JKR's control. RDR wouldn't back down, so JKR and the WB brought on the lawsuit.
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Date: 2008-04-15 04:35 am (UTC)Fair use isn't a concrete law, unfortunately. It's just a convincing argument to get around the copyright laws. That's why it doesn't seem to have restrictions, only guidelines on how to make the argument convincing.
I certainly haven't seen what this encyclopedia is doing (nor do I care, in point of fact), but if it's accurately called an encyclopedia then it is simply an informational source that will not contain extensive direct quotations from the Harry Potter books.
The thing is that that's the main argument that JKR and the WB have made strong in their case as to what the lexicon book is. Despite RDR eventually conceding that point, they still argue that it's fair use anyway and out of JKR's control. RDR wouldn't back down, so JKR and the WB brought on the lawsuit.