Oi!

[ivyblossom]

Well, this just makes me sad:

Rowling acknowledged she once bestowed an award on Vander Ark's Web site because, she said, she wanted to encourage a very enthusiastic fan.

But she said she "almost choked on my coffee" one morning when she realized Vander Ark had warned others not to copy portions of his Web site. She said she now has second thoughts about all the encouragement she has given to online discussions and Web sites devoted to her books.

"I never censored it or wanted to censor it," she said, adding that if she loses the lawsuit, she will conclude she essentially gave away her copyrights by encouraging the Web sites.

"Other authors will say, `I need to exercise more control. She was an idiot. She let it all go,'" Rowling said.

Comments

[twilightbyproxy.livejournal.com]

What happened is that the majority of the content of the book is word for word copied from the HP books with no new information or analysis added to it. They claim it's a scholarly work because experts from a big named college say so.

As for the website, the design and graphics really do belong to Steve. As for the content, it belongs to everyone and no one with the encourage of JKR. I thought that was the spirit of fandom. That's why JKR choked on her coffee, because of an old and edited claim of ownership of everything on that site.

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

As for the content, it belongs to everyone and no one with the encourage of JKR. I thought that was the spirit of fandom.

I think you and I are in different fandoms, because nothing produced in the fandom I participated in "belongs to everyone".

[twilightbyproxy.livejournal.com]

I think you and I are in different fandoms, because nothing produced in the fandom I participated in "belongs to everyone".

So those essays, reviews, criticism, analysis, and research to hidden meanings of the Harry Potter books on the lexicon website don't belong to the people who wrote them? Steve's lexicon book doesn't have any of that in there. It's just mostly compiled facts taken straight from the HP books with hardly anything else to add to it.

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

Copied and pasted? Or reworded? I can't imagine she would have given an award to someone who just retyped chunks of text. Did they try to publish essays by other people without getting their okay first? I missed that part.

[twilightbyproxy.livejournal.com]

I believe there was a brief outcry and concern by other people concerning them not being contacted about their work being published without permission. When it came to light that mostly nothing original contributed to the site was included in the book, it discredited RDR's and Steve's claim that the book was a printed version of the website. They in fact backpeddled on their statement and pretended that they didn't claim that at all.

RDR and Steve have been continuously changing their minds about the fact of the matter and trying to say that because JKR liked the site, then that's permission enough to publish for a price. Then Steve says that it's not for profit without anything to add about where the proceeds would go.

I can't imagine she would have given an award to someone who just retyped chunks of text.

Well, she didn't give an award for that. She gave an award to the website that was enriching for the fandom community and free for everyone to access.

The Harry Potter Lexicon book to be published is not even close to the website as a whole. It's just mostly factual encyclopedic entries and spoiling plot summaries. There are no essays or hardly any critical analysis or commentary in the book. The book is not the website.

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

When I think of the lexicon, that's exactly the part I think of. Not the essays. Actually I didn't know there were essays there. That's entirely an aside. What you describe is what encyclopedias are.

[airemay.livejournal.com]

I have not seen the materials available online from the book, so I cannot comment directly on that.

HOWEVER.

I believe that saying that the content belongs to everyone is stretching things. Steve has every right not to ask people to copy things on his website. The WB basically lifted his incredibly intricate timeline off his website for their DVD. Did they ask? Nope! Greatest example for why he warned people not to steal things from his site. He and his team have worked very hard to compile HPott information over the years.

Even though a big portion of the Lexicon is devoted to facts from the books, quotes from the book, etc, it takes a long time to get all that information out of the books and onto the internet. I'm sure that JKR will find it difficult to compile her universe when she publishes her encyclopedia.

[twilightbyproxy.livejournal.com]

The WB basically lifted his incredibly intricate timeline off his website for their DVD.

That matter was dropped and never fully proven to be true. (Even though RDR brought that back up in the legal documents in the lawsuit.) There's actually a theory that anyone could have made the same exact mistake on the timeline when all they had to go on was the text from the books themselves with or without realizing that the books were inconsistent. There's not a copyright on doing math and looking at calendars.

Of course I agree that he had a right to tell people not to lift anything from the website. It's not right to plagiarize one of their legitimate essays, articles, and critical analysis. Nor is it right to copy the site layout, unique organization, or the graphics.

He and his team have worked very hard to compile HPott information over the years.

Well that was their choice wasn't it? JKR honored their efforts with a well deserve award mentioned on her website. Does that discredit the effort of the building of the HP world that JKR did for nearly 20 or more that she has to give up her rights to it? I don't think so.

Even though a big portion of the Lexicon is devoted to facts from the books, quotes from the book, etc, it takes a long time to get all that information out of the books and onto the internet.

It's been proven by a tech from the RDR team that it's impossible for anyone to print the entire website out and sell it as a book because the site is too huge.

I'm sure that JKR will find it difficult to compile her universe when she publishes her encyclopedia.

She already has a unique design in mind for her encyclopedia book. All she'd have to do is use her own work and no one else's for the content. I doubt it would be as hard as trying to compile the whole lexicon website into a book (with all rights taken care of) considering the fanfiction, multiple essays and article by multiple people and what not aside from the facts from the HP books themselves.

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

You seem to be arguing that JKR should own the trademark on her universe and all of its elements, not copyright, and even then I'm not sure she'd have a case (IANAL). An encyclopedia really IS just explaining details from the book, what else should it possibly be? Essays are superfluous to that concept. They can ask them to not use the font, but not to not paraphrase a plot. Paraphrasing a plot point is not illegal. Copying an entire chapter and posting that is a problem, but using quotes to support a paraphrase is not.

[twilightbyproxy.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, but I'm starting to get a little confused with bringing in the idea of arguing about a trademark. JKR and the WB are arguing that the content of the lexicon book uses too much of copying word for word, without quotation marks, from all of the HP books combined. They've submitted and used a side by side camparison of the lexicon manuscript to the HP books to prove their point. That sounds to me more like copyright violation than questionable trademark to me.

Now whether or not all the content of the book is compiled straight from the website, JKR was fine with the website because a) it's not a book up for sale, and b) it was a hobby performed by fans, made available to fans for free.

Another thing, RDR books continually interchange what the lexicon book is. Is it an encyclopedia? Or is it a guidebook? Is it either or are they trying for both? That's confusing as well because I thought there were differences between the two.

By the way, I take back my statement of how the timeline matter was dropped. It turns out that Steve and RDR are still pushing the matter while in court. I'm also backing off of the argument of whether or not it was actual theft of Steve's work. The theory I briefly mentioned is just a theory, but it's possible I was wrong anyway.

[twilightbyproxy.livejournal.com]

Note: I really am being emotional and judging with this comment.

I just now read a few articles on Steve's testimony at court today. He also cried on the stand. I, for one, am not disgusted with him for doing so, nor am I disgusted with JKR for doing so. If anything, I'm starting to be completely disgusted with RDR Books only. They were the ones who approached Steve and asked him to write the book. They were the ones who tried to ignore JKR's legal team when they protested instead of honestly trying to come to an agreement. They were the ones who tried to get JKR to give her notes to them in exchange for revealing the lexicon manuscript.

They want that book published, even going so far as to protect Steve's 'copyright' in this situation. But what I see is a greedy company that wants both Steve's and JKR's name on a book for profit. What I see are two individuals hurt by RDR's greed. This is very, very sad.

I agree with the Judge that both parties should try to settle instead of one or the other try to win in this case. This whole situation just sucks.