Dragoness_Muir

interstate78

CorredorX

CorredorX

Oh I know that. I just can't understand why people want to read that kind of crap. Witches and wizards aren't good things for kids to want to be like.

Shmups on the other hand are very good things.

battra92

Damn.

Tyber_Zann

This has actually been done before. In fact, thats the origin of the Sonic the Hedgehog SNES game. It was in fact a rom hack of the speedy Gonzales game, and quite broken.

DimensionWarped

Vidunder

You do realize that some of these lawsuits were not filed by JKR herself, they were filed by her publishing company, Warner Bros, or any other company affiliated with JKR.

JKR doesn't own the rights to JKR anymore.

kwicherbichin

ManekiNeko

Captain Impulse

That said, shoot 'em ups and cute 'em ups are always cool. I wonder what game they ripped off.

battra92

In the case of the Encyclopedia, I think she is more worried that if she lets this case go, then there will be others to follow, who use this as a precedent. She's clearly not motivated by money as much as protecting what she sees as her intellectual property rights, as well as her beloved creations.

Cruithne

On point 2.. She keeps saying this, but she is vastly rich now, and I bet she wouldn't swap it (don't blame her). The fact that this guy that runs this website, is probably going to get $5,000 or something puny for writing an unofficial encyclopedia that basically regurgitates all seven books. (which I would assume most people who buy the unofficial encyclopedia probably already own all 7 books and will buy the official encyclopedia which she has confirmed will have more in it than just regurgitating all 7 books, so in a way i fail to see how she will lose a lot of money :/) In some ways, I see this lawsuit as more of a publicity stunt for her own up and coming official encyclopedia. It's weird how this isn't ok, but the other unofficial book is, in the end (and also why his website which gives this info away for free is also okay). And when it comes down to it, for someone who is "embarrassed" for having all this money, she seems keen to keep thrusting herself into the limelight and keep earning it, whether by law suits or whatnot.

On your point over three... Well, yes, I agree, but the other book that did speculate on the future of HP did actually quote or paraphrase the previous books, therefore that is a breach of an IP. Like my point above, I wonder what her motives and interests are of making an example of the encyclopedia guy against the others. At the end of the day the encyclopedia will just be doing the same... It's all available on the guy's website for free, and she's supported it in the past for however long the website has been up.. The evidence is all there. Now simply because the guy will earn a really puny sum in publishing his website in book format she is interested in sueing him. Then there was the 16 year old kid in France who did a fan translation of DH before the official translation. She went for a lawsuit on that, but then she dropped it. If she is interested in defending her IP then she shouldn't be such a hypocrit about it... :/.

And yeah, I don't like her either LOL.

Yep, it's great that we've had this conversation/debate without the common norm of everything degenerating into cheapshots and insults. Kudos to you!! :)

nimagraven

1) I wouldn't want some jackass taking pictures of my kid, either, whether he was press or not. And I would take whatever legal action available to me to shut that person down, so I can see where she's coming from there.

2) She didn't necessarily "want [her] fame", as she started writing the series just to make ends meet. She was unemployed and living off state support, so I doubt when she wrote the first book she felt she would have to ward off throngs of invasive picture pirates.

3) It's one thing for someone to put out a book speculating the outcome of a work of fiction, since in that case you're referencing someone else's information and then adding your own speculation. It's an entirely different thing to collect, collate, chronicle and condense someone else's intellectual property into a single volume, slap your name on it and sell it for profit. That's a violation of the IP's rights, no matter what kind of spin you put on it.

Anyway, thanks for an interesting debate that didn't snowball into a flame war.

Captain Impulse

The unofficial encyclopedia may or may not be an infringement of her copyright. At the end of the day, she is sueing a fan, and not the publisher who decided to publish the book. The fan was given the assurance from the publisher's lawyers that the book was well and above board - and now he is conveniantly a fall guy for it. The guy already runs the Lexicon, which is a website with all this information on anyway.. The book would just be a more conveniant way of displaying that information..

Lets face it, when JKR publishes her own encyclopedia, people'll buy into it.. Cos it's that simple. It's HP AND an official encyclopedia. JKR's website directly links to this guy's website as well.. Claiming it's a "great website". If anything JKR is wrong in sueing a fan, she should be sueing the publisher.

It opens a can of worms because places like mugglenet, before Deathly Hallows came out, published a book about predictions for DH. Half of which came true. WITH quotes from previous books. They even sold it, and by definition it was infringement of copyright. However, this was let slide, why ... No one knows - Maybe because it's "the biggest HP" site and a possible source of revenue as they get a lot of visitors per day & spew nothing but positive crap about her (and have met her on occasion).

But all of a sudden it seems that she has some kind of war against her fans. If this is the case, then you have to wonder what hope is left for stuff such as fanfiction. Though I am not disagreeing that she is right to sue for breaching her IP, it does bother me that she has singled out the fan out of all of this and NOT the publisher... That and the fact she is unbelievably rich and will continue to make money off HP and more than likely won't lose money from an unofficial encyclopedia... It does make me wonder. Lets face it, I don't think she lost money from Mugglenet's venture after all ;).

She's a very trigger happy, over sensitive woman in terms of law suits and I do wonder what ridiculous one will come next.

nimagraven

And an unofficial encyclopedia is an infringement of her copyright, since she is the owner of the intellectual property.

Captain Impulse

L_K_M

Basically, I wouldn't put it past her to try and sue whoever made this, too.

nimagraven

eskimo-bob

BPMο

Erwin

Erwin

Captain Impulse

nimagraven

InsidiousTuna

Erwin

SupaPhly

icepick314

Kaizuden

bangbangblah

Right and Harry potter sux.

Connoisseur

bangbangblah

Maaxxx

kylo4