Slashdot Mirror
J. K. Rowling Wins $6,750 In Infringement Case
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "J. K. Rowling didn't make enough money on Harry Potter, so she had to make sure that the 'Harry Potter Lexicon' was shut down. After a trial in Manhattan in Warner Bros. v. RDR Books, she won, getting the judge to agree with her (and her friends at Warner Bros. Entertainment) that the 'Lexicon' did not qualify for fair use protection. In a 68-page decision (PDF) the judge concluded that the Lexicon did a little too much 'verbatim copying,' competed with Ms. Rowling's planned encyclopedia, and might compete with her exploitation of songs and poems from the Harry Potter books, although she never made any such claim in presenting her evidence. The judge awarded her $6,750 and granted her an injunction that would prevent the 'Lexicon' from seeing the light of day." Groklaw has an exhaustive discussion of the judgement.
"Please, Ms. Rowling, I'm so tired and bleeding from both ends..."
"Is J.K. gonna have to choke a bitch? Get me my money!"
*JK points wand at lexicon project*
Avada Kedavra!
"It is a denial of justice not to stretch out a helping hand to the fallen; that is the common right of humanity."
When the verdict was announced in court, there was a big puff of smoke. I notice most of the media forgot to mention that part. You'd think someone would have pointed out that smoking in a public building isn't polite...
ed duval the very last person
But I noticed you accidently wrote at least one sentence that doesn't totally drip with contempt for this ruling. Please don't let this happen again - you know we /.ers don't know what opinions to have unless you spell it out for us.
Because she's got lots of money and that's not fair? Somebody better call a waaaaghmbulance for NewYorkCountryLawyer!
At the bottom of the
Rowling's megalomaniacal desire for absolute control over her cash cow is understandable in a Metallica kind of way.
A more pressing question is, why is there such a demand for her infantile shit? A friend once asked me to read Harry Potter to her and I found that it is without a doubt the most sophomoric and overrated shiterature I'd ever laid my eyes on. Come to think of it, Tolkien and C.S. Lewis also suck-ass overrated authors.
Harry Potter fanbois should pick up some Dostoevsky -- I promise that will make their nuts drop and put hair on their chests! Why spend life daydreaming in fairyland when real life is so much more interesting?
If it makes you feel any better, most of my submissions get rejected.
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
"Why is it wrong for a Slashdot post to express an opinion?"
Because of the borg, you will be assimilated, resistance is futile. opinion must be shared by all, or not exist. there can be no bias, except that of the slashdrone. there must be no argument on what is right, for the slashdrones can not argue.
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
"Makes me want to burn my dork card."
Just don't burn your dork - I've heard that REALLY hurts.
Unless you're into that sort of thing.
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
"The crux of your defense appears to be that a website previously existed that Rowling was happy with. Yet one has to be clear on one aspect here: There is a large gulf between publishing large pieces of someone's work for a no-cost reference and publishing someone else's work for profit."
And if that difference isn't recognized you can be certain that many more fan sites will start getting nastygrams.
It seems to me as if the author in this case was being very open to fan sites but not so much to people trying to make money off of plagiarism. Hack I don't even like Harry Potter but in this case it all seems reasonable.
As for the the story description. A miss leading inflammatory story description on Slashdot? Never happens.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
I'm reading this blurb like this, "Judges, in a remarkably stupid an uninformed decision, said that JK Rowlings can be a greedy bitch." Wow.
Imagine if you weren't allowed to use roads because a bus company complained about your driving 3 times. --skunkpussy
"not until Star Trek: TNG was something of that scale attempted (languages created, cultures defined, etc...) "
Obviously, you have never heard of Scientology.
Shut your festering gob you tit! Your type makes me puke! You vacuous toffee-nosed malodorous pervert!
"Why is it wrong for a Slashdot post to express an opinion?"
Because of the borg, you will be assimilated, resistance is futile. opinion must be shared by all, or not exist. there can be no bias, except that of the slashdrone. there must be no argument on what is right, for the slashdrones can not argue.
Now you tell me.
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
Correct, they're baby goats.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
is a form of estoppel.
Godwins Law is invoked.
Hitlers secret police have nothing to do with the conversation.
\.
I'm sure you were making an excellent point. Unfortunately your geek card is being revoked due incorrect usage of the backslash, thus stripping any meaning of your comment.
/ : this is a slash, aka forward slash, or "that weird diagonal line you use on the interwebs"
\ : this is a backslash, aka "the other one you don't use... do you? what's a share? wait wait? What's it called again?"
Have a nice day,
the geek card policy enforcement internet police.