For those of

you who like fan fiction, fan art, and other fan pursuits, I think the J.K. Rowling lawsuit against the

Harry Potter Lexicon book will be an interesting case to watch.

I think some people might

just see it as her trying to protect her money, but really it’s about protecting the copyright. By

giving fans a free reign online, it encourages fandom. Even the unauthorized “what’s going to

happen next” books aren’t exactly competition and not paid attention to too much by the publishers.

But a book like the Lexicon does use her characters and her world as its entire basis. So the question

becomes, because it’s a reference book, will the courts allow it?

Honestly, I don’t

know. But if they are allowed to publish, it will make fans a lot braver about publishing things that

might be copyright infringement, like other reference books or even fan art. Of course, it all depends

on why exactly the court would say they are allowed to publish the book. But the author would lose some

control over who published what using their name and world. The reason Rowling is fighting this isn’t

so much against the Lexicon, but the precedence it could set for other who want to take her work and

make money off of it. And many of those people would not be doing it with the fans best interests in

mind, but instead to make money. So it becomes an issue of she can’t let one person do it, because

that sets the precedent.

Anyways, for fans of all kinds of works, I think this case will set

some new standards and question old fan accepted copyright rules.

The Leaky Cauldron has a

wonderful article discusing all the copyright elements in play with this case. Link.

href="http://legionseagle.livejournal.com/28285.html?view=700797#t700797">Top Ten Hints For Stopping An

Awkward Situation Turning Into an Multi-Part Farce- A great look at the hole RDR keeps digging

themselves into.

Here is an interesting case study comparing the court cases of a Seinfeld

trivia book and a parody book, The Wind Done Gone.

href="http://www.ivanhoffman.com/seinfeld.html">http://www.ivanhoffman.com/seinfeld.html