Certainly. Harry Potter will outlive any faux pas Rowling makes at present, and even if bad publicity resulted in a temporary loss in sales (which I seriously doubt) their popularity would spring back eventually. They’ll remain in the children’s literary canon for a long time, I’m sure, if not forever.

You make a good point, one that more writers (including myself) would do well to remember. Thank you for your thoughts! :)

JK must have had a good reason to be disenchanted with Steve’s work. Having said that, however, this trial leaves a bad taste in my mouth with both parties (I love JK but I also respect Steve and I feel queezy when I see how much the fandom have turned on him like braying sheep…vilifying him every chance they get and I’ve even heard about death threats. This is disgusting. Like everybody else, I used to use the Lexicon too. And I still think it is a massive piece of work that probably helped fuel the media hype surrounding Harry Potter while we fans were waiting for the books to come out…I can say definitely that Steve deserves something for his hard work. But still, whatever he “creates” should not infringe upon JK’s copyriht. He owes her at least that much.)

Finally, I think someone somewhere is misguiding/misleading JK to a certain extent. Artists do tend to take their work too seriously…Sometimes they need people around them who will give them a reality check every now and then and say “Which planet are you on? Will you come back down to earth please.” But unfortunately JK seems to be surrounded by people who either worship her like God or who are just simply afraid to tell her the truth because she is so wealthy and powerful now. For instance, some publicist or PR person should have told her that it was not ok to compare her imaginary characters to her children, who are her flesh and blood and far more important than Harry and his fake universe. She might feel that way now, but I’m sure she wouldn’t if one of her kids went missing like Madeleine McCann. That was just the wrong thing to say if you want to be taken seriously. If any of her kids’ life was in danger, this trial and all things she’s been obsessing about of late would fade into the background like mist on a sunny day. But writers tend to do that sort of thing, you see…They overvalue their work. And her publicity people should have edited that part out of her speeches during the trial…if only to make her seem less biased and less subjective. I do sympathize with her for this.

I don’t really see how which precise party is being sued has any bearing on the fact that this work, which is the cause of the lawsuit, does not infringe on Jo’s original works, nor does it infringe on her ability to make money from them in the future, nor does it plagiarize. I don’t care if she’s suing Vander Ark or RDR or FDR, she’s being a hypocrite and making herself look bad.

EXACTLY. The party being sued is not the issue. JKR suing over a derivative work, when just about everything written is derived here and there from other things (as OSC demonstrated in the article we’re discussing) — THAT is the issue that I, and Lenneth, and others, and Orson Scott Card AND Neil Gaiman, take issue with. I don’t think anyone’s missed the point here. (PS: FDR?? You are full of win today, missy.)

Tui: I’ve been a rather obsessive frequenter of the Lexicon in the past, in order to research for fanfic. I know exactly what it is. Whether it is the publisher or the author being sued is beside the point; someone is being sued over this work which is protected under fair use.

Any book that is an index to a work of literature will pretty much be, as you say, “made up of phrases lifted directly from the text”; that’s how it’s done, whether for Austen or Shakespeare or Rowling. It’s not an essay or a work of literary criticism; it is a reference work. Unless they are to publish new versions of Harry Potter annoted with “verse numbers” like the Bible, thereby eliminating the need to quote, a reference has to be written that way in order for readers to understand what’s being talked about.

I don’t really see how which precise party is being sued has any bearing on the fact that this work, which is the cause of the lawsuit, does not infringe on Jo’s original works, nor does it infringe on her ability to make money from them in the future, nor does it plagiarize. I don’t care if she’s suing Vander Ark or RDR or FDR, she’s being a hypocrite and making herself look bad.

I have not been to the Lexicon myself, so let’s use your description, but personally I disagree with your interpretation that is not fair use. How else are you going to make a reference document if you cannot use the source material? “Page 234, second paragraph (Scholastic hardcover version), page 250, third paragraph (Scholastic paperback version, second printing), third through 10th word,…” etc., and so on for each and every printing that differs throughout the entire globe.

The concept of fair use is for allowing excerpts to build derivative works that do not dilute the original while at the same time preventing wholesale lifting of text and claiming it as something new. It is a fine balance between the interests of the copyright holder and greater society. Unfortunately that balance has been horribly distorted in recent years. While I don’t claim that this book is an authoritative text on the matter, Free Culture is a fairly balanced take on the current state of copyright and public domain. I would highly recommend you give it a read (it’s available as a free download).

I respect your opinions, but this bit gives me the impression that you don’t really know much about the case. Steve Vander Ark is not getting sued. His publisher RDR Books is being sued. RDR Books is being sued because the, while it is normal to make reference books, the Lexicon is essentially made up of phrases lifted directly from the text of Harry Potter or slightly paraphrased which is not fair use. You kind of missed the whole point of the case.

I enjoy his candor too. I think it’s important to strike a balance. Nothing could be more horrifying than Anne Rice’s reaction to fan reviews of her one of her books (one of her vampire books I think), in public and at Amazon, no less. She really paid for that mistake. I hope JCWs ability to speak his mind never comes back to bite him in the rear . . . though if it did, I bet he could handle the fallout as well as anyone. He might even relish it. (@_@)