JK Rowling: a small case of projection
In her legal case against Steve Vander Ark and his Harry Potter Lexicon, a tearful JK Rowling accused the defendant of ‘constant pilfering‘.
All you can really say to that is Jesus, what balls! If the likes of Tolkien weren’t dead, Rowling might very well have found herself on the receiving end of similar legal accusations. To point out the elements of her books that have been lifted wholesale from better authors could take the rest of the day.
(Via Marina Hyde)
Posted on April 19th, 2008 at 10:21 am
| See also • Meanwhile, back in 1692… • A brief Harry Potter review • A period of silence would be welcome |
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Spot on! And her crying in court over this trifle? Jeez, get a life, lady.
Mike Powers last blog post..Saturday PaperRound 19/04/2008
I’ve not read any of the Harry Potter books (been a while since swords ‘n’ sorcery did it for me) but they always seemed, from the little I know about them, to be a rather dumbed-down version of Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea books which I read as a kid.
This lawsuit of hers is taking the piss something rotten, and I hope it gets thrown out of court.
Jim Blisss last blog post..Southland Tales
Nah, gotta disagree with you on this one. Yes, Harry Potter is derivative but not plagiarism. This lexicon is specifically about her characters and her work, and I think she has a good case. Apart from anything else, one of the reasons she is doing this is because she wants to do her own, for charity, which most of her Harry Potter off-shoots are.
OK, but I wonder how much money is going to be denied Rowling in the event of the rival lexicon being published. How many Potterheads will settle for owning just the pale imitation when Rowling’s own version hits the shelves?
On the derivative/plagiarism thing, I see your point, but if it’s not plagiarism she sails bloody close to the wind on quite a number of occasions.
Guides to books aren’t illegal. I really don’t see how the Lexicon is anything but. If he isn’t using the characters in any way or claiming ownership , but relating information about the characters/world/ect, he really isn’t plagiarizing anything.
She has nothing to worry about, because her own encyclopedia would have tidbits that never made it into the books, so any real fan would buy hers, not his. Personally this is doing nothing but making Rowling look very small.