> New York Times > February 9, 2008 > Talking Business; Page B1 > A Tight Grip Can Choke Creativity > By JOE NOCERA > On Friday, a lawyer named Anthony Falzone filed his side's first big brief > in the case of Warner Bros. Entertainment and J. K. Rowling v. RDR Books. > Mr. Falzone is employed by Stanford Law School, where he heads up the Fair > Use Project, which was founded several years ago by Lawrence Lessig, > perhaps the law school's best-known professor. Mr. Falzone and the other > lawyers at the Fair Use Project are siding with the defendant, RDR Books, > a small book publisher based in Muskegon, Mich. As you can see from the > titans who have brought the suit, RDR Books needs all the legal firepower > it can muster. > > As you can probably also see, the case revolves around Harry Potter. J. K. > Rowling, of course, is the creator of the Harry Potter series -- one of > the most successful writers the world has ever known, crowed Neil Blair > of the Christopher Little Literary Agency, which represents her. Warner > Brothers holds the license to the Harry Potter movies. Of the two > plaintiffs, though, Ms. Rowling appears to be the one driving the > litigation. > > "I feel as though my name and my works have been hijacked, against my > wishes, for the personal gain and profit of others and diverted from the > charities I intended to benefit," she said in a declaration to the court. > > And what perfidious act of "hijacking" has RDR Books committed? It planned > to publish a book by Steven Vander Ark, who maintains a fansite called the > Harry Potter Lexicon. The Lexicon publishes Harry Potter essays, finds > Harry Potter mistakes, explains Harry Potter terminology, devises Harry > Potter timelines and does a thousand other things aimed at people who > can't get enough Harry Potter. It's a Harry Potter encyclopedia for > obsessive fans. > > So long as the Lexicon was a free Web site, Ms. Rowling looked kindly upon > it. But when Mr. Vander Ark tried to publish part of the Lexicon in book > form - and (shudder!) to make a profit - Ms. Rowling put her foot down. > She claims that she wants to publish her own encyclopedia someday and > donate the proceeds to charity and a competing book by Mr. Vander Ark > would hurt the prospects for her own work. > > But more than that, she is essentially claiming that the decision to > publish - or even to allow - a Harry Potter encyclopedia is hers alone, > since after all, the characters in her books came out of her head. They > are her intellectual property. And in her view, no one else can use them > without her permission... > > _______________________________________________
