There’s much speculation going on about the current lawsuit between J.K. Rowling and RDR Publishing about the Lexicon. My newsgroups are all of a sudden full of folks who’ve never before bothered to read the Fair Use clause and are now trying to practice law over the internet. (Since that’s a favourite pastime of my own, I can’t really fault them. But even I admit that non-attorneys practicing law over the internet are kinda silly. Myself included.)
While I’m not an attorney and I didn’t sleep at a Holiday Inn Express or play an attorney on TV, I did work in Publishing and Trademark Rights for a number of years, and so I’m what you might call a lay expert.
A lot of folks in the fandom are very upset that JKR is “attacking” Steve VanderArk. After years of her working hand-in-glove with her fan base, it can seem a little bit callous to suddenly sue a person whose site she has admittedly turned to herself for reference. The fact that she’s got a bajillion dollars doesn’t help her any in the court of public opinion. I think back to a post on Ron Coleman’s site that talked about “Piggy Lady Rowling”. (For all you fans out there, Ron Coleman is an ACTUAL copyright lawyer, so it’s good to drop in on his site to get some real information.)
I said last fall and I say now that I side with Rowling in this matter, even though I think she may lose. The thing is that when I was working in P&T Rights our attorneys drummed into our head that the most important thing we could do was “vigorously defend” our trademarks. I spent long hours sending letters to random people just to ensure that my company was on record as defending its ownership of the various things we copyrighted. If we didn’t fight the small battles we could lose the big one.
That’s why I personally think Rowling is going toe-to-toe with the Lexicon. If she doesn’t stop RDR (who?) Publishing from printing a few thousand copies of this book, she’ll have less of a leg to stand on should Random House decide to print a few million copies of another “Guide To Harry Potter” book.
Of course, I also think that Vander Ark saw what MuggleNet did by putting out their own book of original material and decided that he wanted some of that shelf-space. Shame Vander Ark is a cataloger instead of a writer, because his material consists of reorganising Rowling’s work as opposed to writing original commentary, like MuggleNet did.
Just Another Pretty Farce 
I wonder why she and RDR just can’t come to some sort of “free” licensing agreement for a small number of books. Everybody wins. RDR gets to publish a few books (but not so much that they ride JKR’s coattails all the way to the bank), and JKR get to protect her trademark against future usurpers.
I’m a bit appalled at how other authors are piling on her. I mean … do they not see what’s going on? It’s not about this one book. I highly doubt Steve’s book would actually be competitive with JKR’s own work. HOWEVER, this book, plus the hundred other similar books that would inevitably be published as a result of an RDR win, just might. And if it can pinch Rowling, it sure as HECK can pinch authors who *aren’t* billionaires and actually need every penny of income they get.
It’s ridiculous that his book is even being considered.
Obviously he shouldn’t be allowed to publish.
I am VERY STRONGLY against Rowling on this issue. She is attacking Steven Vander Ark saying that he just rearranged her stories to make the Harry Potter Lexicon. She is accusing him of taking her ideas just to make money, and she says that she feels her words were stolen, and that she feels personally violated. Her lawyers are making a huge deal out of this. I might could agree with this if Steven Vander Ark was trying to pass off his Lexicon as an original work of fiction, however that is not the case! The Lexicon is only a REFERENCE BOOK in which he comments on her books for people who have already paid for their copies of Rowling’s books.
Once a book is published anyone is free to write about it, comment on it and to even quote it as long as they cite their sources. Steven Vander Ark has done absolutely nothing wrong. In fact he has for years now run a website that he has had all his material for the Lexicon posted on(Sources cited and all). Rowling had even admitted that she has used his website to look up details from her previous books!!! She has made personal use of His work, and found it useful. His website was free to everyone who cared to look, and she had no problems about it. She even gave him an award for his work. But as soon as he wanted to take his materials from his website and turn them into a book to sell, she goes ballistic!! She starts spouting all this nonsense about plagiarism and emotional distress.
If anything Rowling should be sued by N.K. Stouffer and Jill Murphy because Rowling’s Harry Potter books are almost blatantly copied from their works. (The Legend of Rah and the Muggles, Larry Potter both by N.K. Stouffer) and (The Worst Witch by Jill Murphy). In fact Stouffer did indeed try and sue Rowling but back then her lawyers just shrugged and said Stouffer’s claims were “Frivolous”. All three of these books were written before Rowling even BEGAN to write her “original” works of literature.
She even copied the name Harry Potter. She pretty much copied his whole character from other people. The movie Troll, seen here:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092115/
is a good candidate for her Harry Potter. Another place she got her ideas is from The Books of Magic by Neil Gaiman.
So Katheryn, I don’t believe it is ridiculous that this book is being considered. What I think IS ridiculous is that this lawsuit brought up by Rowling is actually being carried through. Obviously he has every right to publish.
Pam, Steven Vander Ark’s book is not meant to compete with Rowling’s books, because his book is a reference book for her books. Its practically an encyclopedia. She’s just pissed she didn’t think of it first and she’s angry that she isn’t going to get the money that she would have annotated her books herself. And guess what?!? No one is stopping her from doing just that herself!
Jason, again, nobody is trying to remake any of Rowling’s “original” works. This isn’t about “some sort of ‘free’ licensing agreement for a small number of books.” It’s about a REFERENCE BOOK! That’s it! One that is opinion based, and properly cited!! If she wants to sue everyone who makes comments and quotes on her books, then she would have to sue me too for writing a school paper on her.(I am 18 years old by the way and yes, I properly cited her works in the correct MLA format)
Katherine Coble, I respect that you have for several years worked in Publishing and Trademark Rights, and Im sure that you learned a lot. However, I don’t believe that Rowling’s “trademark” is being attacked, and I don’t think that she has to “vigorously defend” it from a reference book written by Steven Vander Ark.
I hope you even read this far. Thank you for lending me your time…Stephen.