JK Rowling Made a Fan Cry
| By Kay Steiger - Apr 16th, 2008 at 9:27 am EDT |
| Also listed in: Campus Progress Blog |
In presidings over a copyright lawsuit yesterday, a fan creating a "Harry Potter Lexicon" -- an encyclopedia of sorts about the world of Harry Potter -- cried. J.K. Rowling, the author of the infamous books, called the encyclopedia "sloppy, lazy and ... wholesale theft" of her work.
But it turns out Rowling likes Vander Ark's website, something the middle school librarian created as a companion site over the years. It's just that Rowling is concerned that the Lexicon could compete with her own forthcoming Harry Potter encyclopedia.
At this point, Rowling's creation has become to big for her to control. Harry Potter has become part of global culture. Clearly she has chosen to pick and choose which "copyright violations" she will go after -- and this one was targeted because it directly competed with something she herself planned to sell.
But it turns out Rowling likes Vander Ark's website, something the middle school librarian created as a companion site over the years. It's just that Rowling is concerned that the Lexicon could compete with her own forthcoming Harry Potter encyclopedia.
At this point, Rowling's creation has become to big for her to control. Harry Potter has become part of global culture. Clearly she has chosen to pick and choose which "copyright violations" she will go after -- and this one was targeted because it directly competed with something she herself planned to sell.
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The fact that the author is unconcerned about her dedicated fans further leads me away from the series, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. It seems Rowling's only hurting herself: the Pottermania's probably over now that the last book's out.
Props for posthumorously making one of the character's gay, though.