Okay, so bear with me on this one. I’m actually not into Harry Potter in the slightest (I’m one of those jerks who shouts they read it first when it was called THE BOOKS OF MAGIC!), but their fandom is absolutely amazng. The people who adore these books have produced some of the most inspiring and downright horrifying tales in the history of people who take fantasy too far. It’s great to watch, especially if you don’t have any emotional investment in it (which is why I’ll start throwing chairs if we don’t get the REAL Black Bolt back to the Marvel Universe).
So, quick quick version: a fan of the Harry Potter series sets up a website called the ‘Harry Potter Lexicon’ that puts all the information from the books in order. People love it and info geeks go wild; even the author JK Rowling thinks the whole thing is pretty faboo becase she gives them a shoutout for being so thorough with her information. All is well and the fan who runs the place (with the help of a few volunteers and other writers) thinks he’s got a little crown on his head and is full of pride.
A lot of pride, since he wants to publish the site as an official book. Not only is this a little odd since some of the material isn’t his as it was written by other authors, but… let’s face facts: when asked by JK Rowling if he could, she said no. That’s it, right?
Nope! Yesterday it all went to court in a big show of who has the right to the material, who’s being unfair and who’s just out for cash. Thanks to Fandom Wank for keeping me updated on this whole affair; contributor ‘cleolinda’ has brought the wise face of Galadriel to the lawsuit which makes it doubly classy.
There’s been everything from pie charts to snarky comments from the plaintiff and, despite her tearful admittance that this whole affair is effecting her writing, I can see how this should have been an open-and-shut case. No matter how you jazz it up, taking someone else’s info and arranging it alphabetically doesn’t make it yours. It’s great that he did that and I’m sure without this legal nonsense the author might have given a nod his way (technically, she already did!), but selling it is a whole other matter.
So, fair internet info geeks, let this be a lesson. While we hail you for giving us an online version of the Handbook to the Marvel Universe, or a comprehensive look at Hulk villains (to say the least), don’t publish these things and call it your own?
BONUS! Diane Duane gives us our own JKR vs. RDR lawsuit widget! Be kept up to date on how serious you can take the words “Lord Voldemort”!
3 Comments
The bonehead should have just made the book and then put it for free on the website, having a donate button if people felt that it was good enough to merit money. Splitting the money with any other contributors to said book.
Unofficial guides and encyclopedias are done all the time, it’s just in how you do it is all.
The publisher should take at least half the blame here too because when the guy was iffy on making this book, worrying about copyright violations, the publisher said it wouldn’t be a problem.
Writing guides to other famous works is normal, though: there are guides to Narnia, guides to Buffy, etc. I haven’t seen the content of this book, but it is definitely okay to write a book that’s a guide to another set of books. You just can’t copy verbatim from the original work (you can, though, quote from them and use the information in them to create timelines, etc).
Now, if the guy’s book is just taken verbatim from the novels, that’s another matter and is clearly not cool.
Cliff’s Notes. I guess a lot of them are on stuff like Shakespeare that’s probably hella public domain. I don’t know.
I’ll bet the guides to things like Narnia and Buffy had to go through C.S. Lewis’s estate or whoever has the rights to Buffy.
The problem with making a book and putting it up for free is, it costs really money to print books, and people who can get things for free without paying are more numerous than the people who’d actually pay on the honour system.