Copyright
In court, J.K. Rowling nearly cries over Harry Potter Lexicon
The author says that a fan's book based on her creation is theft.
Last fall, I discussed the legal scuffle over Steven Vander Ark, a middle-aged, middle-school librarian and ardent “Harry Potter” fan who found himself in a heap of trouble with “Potter” author J.K. Rowling.
In 2000, Vander Ark created the Harry Potter Lexicon, an amazingly comprehensive online reference of all that occurs in the seven “Potter” books.
To quote its Wikipedia entry the lexicon lists “characters, places, creatures, spells, potions and magical devices” in the “Potter” books — a reference work that even Rowling admits is useful. She once wrote, “This is such a great site that I have been known to sneak into an Internet cafe while out writing and check a fact rather than go into a bookshop and buy a copy of ‘Harry Potter’….”
But Rowling and Warner Bros., the studio that makes the “Potter” movies, were enraged to discover that Vander Ark had plans to produce a physical book based on the Web site. In October, they sued Vander Ark’s publisher, RDR Books.
Today, the suit lands in court, and it could result in a landmark ruling for copyright law in the digital era.
On the stand, Rowling was almost in tears as she described how Vander Ark’s work has hurt her; the case has “decimated my creative work over the last month,” she said.
Vander Ark’s work represented a “wholesale” theft of her creativity, she argued. As Blomberg reports, she also said:
Should it be published, I feel that carte blanche will be given to anybody who wants to make a quick bit of money… The idea of my readership parting with their or their parents’ hard-earned cash for this is a travesty.
And:
What particularly galls is the lack of quotation marks…. If Mr. Vander Ark had put quotations marks around everything he lifted, most of the lexicon would be in quotation marks.
RDR Books admits that its Lexicon copies from Rowling’s work — but it argues that the copying is legal, because it falls under the “fair use” provisions of U.S. copyright law. The law allows copying if it occurs for “purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching … scholarship, or research.”
RDR, which is being defended by copyright scholars and supporters of the fair use, is calling academics to the stand to discuss the long literary tradition of lexicons.
As I pointed out last year, libraries are filled with books like Vander Ark’s, books that Rowling describes as theft: For instance, a list of the allusions in “Ulysses”; or a complete guide to all of the characters in William Faulkner’s fiction; or a compilation and detailed analysis of Bob Dylan’s lyrics; or a book containing the complete chronology of the events in David Foster Wallace’s “Infinite Jest.”
If Rowling prevails, RDR argues, books like this — books of scholarship — will be limited.
That highlights the importance of the case. Anthony Falzone, RDR’s attorney and the executive director of Stanford Law School’s Fair Use Project, tells the Wall Street Journal’s law blog that courts have begun “to recognize the organizational value that informational guides provide.”
Is Steven Vander Ark’s lexicon such a guide, or a theft? Now a court decides.
Farhad Manjoo is a Salon staff writer and the author of True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society. More Farhad Manjoo.
Is it OK to steal “Downton Abbey”?
Obsessive TV fans are turning into shameless online pirates, as cult shows air in the U.K. before making it here
In an otherwise civil discussion of “Downton Abbey’s” second season, actor Hugh Bonneville let loose on an interviewer who casually let it slip that she’d gone online and viewed a pirated version of the British period drama’s Christmas special, which aired in the U.K. in December but won’t hit PBS until Feb. 19. This turned out to be the wrong thing to tell the man who plays proud patriarch Robert Crawley.
Continue Reading CloseDoes culture really want to be free?
Are new media companies "digital parasites"? The author of "Free Ride" tells Salon piracy is killing art
(Credit: l i g h t p o e t via Shutterstock) Over the last few weeks, Salon has been looking at the destruction of the creative class by the Internet, the recession and a transforming economy. A new book, “Free Ride,” by the journalist Robert Levine, intersects with some of these concerns. Subtitled “How Digital Parasites Are Destroying the Culture Business and How the Culture Business Can Fight Back,” Levine’s book looks at how publishing, the music industry, newspapers and other industries drank the dot.com Kool-Aid, effectively killing themselves off. He’s particularly interested in copyright, the U.S. government’s role in unleashing the Internet and the impact of digital piracy.
Continue Reading CloseScott Timberg is a former Los Angeles Times arts and culture writer who has also contributed to the New York Times, GQ and other publications. He is the co-editor of the book "The Misread City: New Literary Los Angeles." He blogs at scott-timberg.blogspot.com/. More Scott Timberg.
Your favorite author, brought to you by a wealthy patron
As copyright erodes and the book industry changes, a combination of Kickstarter and the rich might fund writers
(Credit: iStockphoto/NickS) A passage from Stephen Greenblatt’s new book, “Swerve,” on Renaissance book culture, has this to say about how writers paid their bills several centuries ago:
Continue Reading CloseAuthors made nothing from the sale of their books; their profits derived from the wealthy patron to whom the work was dedicated. (The arrangement — which helps to account for the fulsome flattery of dedicatory epistles — seems odd to us, but it had an impressive stability, remaining in place until the invention of copyright in the 18th century.)
Laura Miller is a senior writer for Salon. She is the author of "The Magician's Book: A Skeptic's Adventures in Narnia" and has a Web site, magiciansbook.com. More Laura Miller.
Copyright concerns for “Wizard of Oz” prequel
Surprisingly, even a James Franco project isn't immune to legal battles over "iconic" images
"The Wizard of Oz." When you think about Dorothy’s slippers from “The Wizard of Oz,” are they silver or ruby? How about the Wicked Witch … what color is she? What kind of dog is Toto?
Your answers to these questions are probably based on the 1939 MGM (now Warner Bros.) classic, “The Wizard of Oz,” and not the 1900 fairy tale “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.” And unfortunately, this could mean trouble for Sam Raimi and James Franco’s new star-studded project, “Oz, the Great and Powerful,” according to a new ruling set by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Continue Reading CloseDrew Grant is a staff writer for Salon. Follow her on Twitter at @videodrew. More Drew Grant.
Mike Tyson’s tattoo artist can’t stop “Hangover II”
Despite a copyright lawsuit over the ink on Ed Helms' face, the show will go on
Tyson's tattoo on Helm's face. “The Hangover: Part II” premieres this week, despite an attempt at an injunction from the man who tattooed Mike Tyson’s face in 2003. A federal judge ruled that S. Victor Whitmill could not stop Warner Bros. from releasing the film, despite the artist’s claims that the movie infringed on his copyright of Tyson’s facial tattoo. Warner Bros. claims the image falls under fair use.
Continue Reading CloseDrew Grant is a staff writer for Salon. Follow her on Twitter at @videodrew. More Drew Grant.
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