While the rest of romance land rips and tears at whether Cassie Edwards should be killed, gutted and stuffed, I thought I’d provide a link to another copyright issue I find somewhat interesting–the JK Rowling suit against the Harry Potter Lexicon Site.
If you haven’t heard the story what it boils down to is that this site, an online encyclopedia of sorts for HP fans, was looked on with favor by Rowling–that is until they decided to take their facts and put them in book form. Then Rowling and her publisher decided they too might want to put together such a guide and objected to the site owners compiling their own. Here’s an article from Slate regarding this.
I find this fascinating. First, let’s face it, a lot of the creatures in the HP books are not original. They came from folklore. I can’t see how Rowling would have suddenly gained rights over them. On the other hand, she did create the characters and the world. And I can understand her frustration at someone else making money off her labors.
I wonder how Jane Austen would feel about all the books that are now being produced that use her characters? Is that wrong? Her copyright is up. So even if she were alive she couldn’t sue, but if she were alive would people feel she was being stolen from? Would people be in outrage? She did create all the basics after all.
Back to Harry Potter. It will be interesting to see what happens. HP is most definitely still under copyright protection–but what exactly does that protect? Is HP himself enough of a brand (for lack of a better word) that Rowling can use the law to protect him and the world she created?
I have no clue, and I’m not even sure where I stand on it.
January 11th, 2008
