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

[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.