J.K. Rowling: Harry Potter is My World, Not Fan's
Does an encyclopedia of Harry Potter lore take too much and do too little, simply rearranging the furniture of J.K. Rowling’s famous seven-book series of children’s novels? Or is the Harry Potter Lexicon composed by a fan of the books protected by the fair use doctrine?
That is the question to be answered by a federal copyright infringement trial in the Southern District of New York that has brought the British author stateside to testify about her 17-year labor of love in a high-profile trial that has drawn observers like Columbia University Law School copyright professor Tim Wu leading a group of students on an apparent field trip, reports the Wall Street Journal Law Blog.
In addition to focusing on fair-use law, the case between Rowling and her publisher against RDR Books and author Steven Vander Ark “also explores the line between free Web content created by fans and a commercially published book,” writes the New York Times. “Ms. Rowling has openly praised the Web site on which the Lexicon is based, giving it a “fan site award” in 2004 and commenting in interviews that she even relied on the site—which provides an annotated catalog of characters, spells, magic potions, locations and events in her books—while writing. It was only when RDR decided to transform the site into a book that she objected. “
Judge Robert Patterson is hearing the trial without a jury, notes an Associated Press article.
