Harry Potter Fever

I am not really one of those die-hard Harry Potter fans so naturally I wouldn’t be interested to know about the happenings in the world of Harry Potter but one such incident that I read about in the papers sparked my interest because it talked about the whole copyright issue regarding the publication of the Harry Potter encyclopaedia. To begin with, let me start with a bit of a background of the Harry Potter books.

The first of a series of Harry Potter books by the author J.K. Rowling which is about a boy-wizard was published in 1997 and created so much hype and craze among children and adults all over the world. (Pooley, 2007)

J. K. Rowling
(Source: Associated Press)

Ever since these books were published, a whole list of fan-sites and chat-rooms have been created about these books. (Rich, 2008)

According to the Telegraph (2008), one of these websites was the Harry Potter Lexicon website created by Mr. Vander Ark which contained essays by fans about different topics and information about the different spells that were mentioned in the Harry Potter books. J.K. Rowling has always been one to praise such initiatives created by her fans and she even went so much as to award Mr. Ark one of her ‘fan awards’.

Steven Vander Ark
(Source: CNN.com)

However, Rowling was not too happy when she found out that Ark had plans to publish a Harry Potter encyclopaedia. She sued the publication responsible for publishing the book, RDR Books on the grounds of ‘copyright infringement’. (CBS, 2008)

According to Reep (2006 p.41), copyright infringement occurs when someone utilises the original works of a creator for their own interest and benefit without ‘getting permission’...

Rowling did eventually win the lawsuit, therefore blocking publication of the encyclopaedia, however, Ark and the publishing house; RDR Books believe the book shouldn’t be blocked from publication and they are even considering an appeal since they believe that the book was protected by the ‘fair use’ doctrine which basically allows one to publish critiques of literary works.(Chinnici, 2008)

References

Chinnici, C 2008, Judge blocks ‘Harry Potter Lexicon’, CNN.com, viewed 13 November 2008, http://edition.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/books/09/08/harry.potter/index.html

Facts about the Harry Potter Lexicon Website 2008, Telegraph, viewed 13 November 2008, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1895676/Facts-about-the-Harry-Potter-Lexicon-website.html

‘Harry Potter’ Author Wins Copyright Claim 2008, CBS News, viewed 13 November 2008, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/08/entertainment/main4426302.shtml

Pooley, J.D. 2007, Harry Potter, New York Times, viewed 13 November 2008, http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/complete_coverage/harry_potter/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier

Reep, DC 2006, Technical Writing: Principles, Strategies, and Readings, 6th edn, Pearson Education, USA.

Rich, M 2008, Rowling to Testify in Trial Over Potter Lexicon, New York Times, viewed 13 November 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/14/books/14potter.html

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