11.03.07
Rowling Sues HP Lexicon Creator
The Harry Potter world has been rocked this week with the news that J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros. are suing Steven VanderArk, creator of The HP Lexicon, over a book that VanderArk had planned to publish. The book purportedly would contain the same information that is currently available on the Lexicon website.
This news was all the more shocking since Rowling has often mentioned and praised the site, even giving it one of her coveted (by HP fansites at least) Fan Site Awards in 2004.
Rowling has posted her view of the situation on her website; and VanderArk’s publisher, RDR Books has published their view (and presumably Mr. VanderArk’s) on theirs.
Rowling claims that the book VanderArk planned to publish is nothing more than a reorganization of her characters and plots. How she or Warner Bros. could know this, being that the book has not been published yet and therefore not yet read by anybody save Mr. VanderArk and his publisher, I don’t know. But by Mr. VanderArk’s own admission, the book will be largely taken verbatim from the Lexicon website.
Other reports have held that Rowling is suing because she fears competition with her own planned Harry Potter encyclopedia. I find that explanation much more plausible than the idea put forward by Rowling’s camp that it is wrong for VanderArk to profit from the work, thereby making it unavailable to those not able to buy the book. That idea is ludicrous frankly. VanderArk has no plans to shut the website down, which means the information will still be freely available even if the book is published.
But what about Rowling’s fear that VanderArk’s encyclopedia would compete with her own? Rubbish, I say, for two reasons. One, as a fan I can tell you that while I might enjoy VanderArk’s book, in no way would I see it as a good substitute for words written by Rowling herself. If she does publish an encyclopedia, which is by no means a certainty at this point, I would definitely buy/read it no matter how many times I had read VanderArk’s book, and I suspect many fans would do the same. It makes sense. I doubt very many people have opted to read VanderArk’s Lexicon website instead of reading the Harry Potter books themselves. Two, from what Rowling has said of the encyclopedia type book that she plans to write, her and VanderArk’s books are fundamentally different. Rowling has stated that the plan for her encyclopedia would be mainly information NOT included in the original seven Harry Potter novels. Mr. VanderArk’s book would be an encyclopedia/reference type book with some critical/literary commentary on information from the seven original novels, nothing more. Quite obviously, Mr. VanderArk has no access to information that as yet only lives within the author’s head. How these two works would compete with each other is beyond my understanding.
It is completely illogical for Rowling and Warner Bros. to be okay with Mr. VanderArk’s website, but disapproving of the identical book. Either the information infringes on Rowling’s copyrights or it doesn’t, whether it’s on a website or in a book. Yes, the book will make money, but not at the expense of the author making money on her own creation. Countless other Harry Potter reference books exist on the market and none of them are being sued. Even reference type books with little additional commentary are indeed covered under fully legal literary/critical analysis. I’m a Stephen King fan and I own several books that are little more than lists of the characters in the Stephen King novels with a few plot summaries. If these are legal, I guarantee that VanderArk’s are as well.
I really feel that this is a bad move on Rowling’s part. I can’t help but feel that now that she has released all seven books she feels at liberty to alienate as many fans as possible. By suing one of her most ardent fans, a fan who has spent countless hours in activities that could only serve to promote Rowling’s work, she is sending a message about what her fans really mean to her. Are we only dollar signs to you, Ms. Rowling?
I also feel that the press on the matter has been a scurrilous and shameful attempt to use Rowling’s legion of fans, most of whom are young enough to accept Rowling’s version of matters without question, to try the case in the court of public opinion instead of in the court of law. Badly done.
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Ruth said,
November 14, 2007 at 5:17 pm
Hmm, wonder where my first comment went. Couldn’t be that anything disagreeing with the blogger gets deleted? Nah, free speech and all that jazz? Anyway, RavenclawWit, you’re STILL wrong. If JKR doesn’t win this case just watch fan sites getting closed down left right and centre by authors and other content producers afraid that allowing fan web sites will weaken their IP rights. VanderArk is a money grabbing git.
Gon said,
November 15, 2007 at 11:29 pm
I find your blog inaccurate and misleading.
This is what JK Rowling says regarding the book:
“It is, we believe, a print version of the website, except now the information that was freely available to everybody is to become a commercial enterprise. It is not reasonable, or legal, for anybody, fan or otherwise, to take an author’s hard work, re-organize their characters and plots, and sell them for their own commercial gain. However much an individual claims to love somebody else’s work, it does not become theirs to sell.”
The point is that VanderArk had no right to make money by selling the print book. JK Rowling has never had any problems with the free online website, and does not till today.
The rest of your comments are, I note, your own opinion and unsubstantiated by any facts.
RavenclawWit said,
November 16, 2007 at 11:40 pm
@ Ruth
I never saw your other comment so I’m not sure what you’re referring to. And I disagree. You’re giving Rowling way more power than she actually has. Fan sites existed before Harry Potter and they’ll exist after.
RavenclawWit said,
November 16, 2007 at 11:46 pm
@ Gon
Ummm yeah. It’s a blog. Maybe you’ve heard of them? Of course it’s chock full of opinions. Just because it’s an opinion you disagree with doesn’t make it misleading.
I understand that some fans take their enjoyment of Rowling’s books and transform it into a complete idolization of her as a person, but you have to understand that just because she says something doesn’t make it the gospel truth.
And I completely disagree with your last point. I based my opinion on the matter entirely on the facts. Just because I interpreted the facts differently than you doesn’t mean I just made everything up.
ZGold said,
December 1, 2007 at 6:53 pm
well, this was the first I heard about any of this, so I guess I can’t really speak from an ‘educated’ viewpoint, as I don’t ~actually~ know any of the facts - but that doesn’t stop me from speculating
I think VanderArk has ~every~ right to publish a paper version of his website and sell it for real money. This guy has spent probably as much time and effort on creating the lexicon as JK ever did on creating the series. The key point, I think, is whether the free website will remain up and running. If so, then those who wish to have a paper reference - and those who want to demonstrate a fiscal appreciation of all the hard work VanderArk has done for the community - will purchase the book. Those who object to the book (for whatever reason), will obviously boycott it.
I seriously doubt, even though the HP series is now technically ‘complete’, that the lexicon won’t continue to evolve and accrue new information or interpretations of information - how is a printed book to keep up with that?
Personally, and I stress that this is my ~personal~ opinion, unless JK is planning to donate all proceeds of any ‘encyclopedia’ she creates to a charity, then I would argue that ~that~ is an author wringing as many shiney gold coins out of her creation as she can. Besides which, with her somewhat notorious ability to get things wrong when it comes to continuity, I’d be rather dubious as to her ability to create an ‘unseen’ information encyclopedia that didn’t contradict half the things currently taken for granted.
Britannia said,
December 16, 2007 at 7:10 pm
Vander Ark does not have the right to do a print version of the Lexicon. It is a fan site, with artwork, photos and essays that belong to many different people. It has been allowed to quote liberally from Jo’s books because it was free and available to all fans.
Recently, Vander Ark admitted the book would be lacking all essays, photos and artwork. It would only be the encyclopedia portion of the Lexicon. So why didn’t he tell Warner Brothers and Jo this sooner? Why did he wait until he was sued?
Clearly the man is having a mid-life crisis. Coupled with post-Potter depression. He’ll soon go from a BNF to a nobody and he can’t stop it. And so he’s rather pathetically decided to become a permanent Potter leech by moving to Britain and giving guided tours of sites from the movies and books. Perhaps he’ll apply to be on BBC’s Mastermind to prove he knows better than Jo. What a git!
Raine said,
December 26, 2007 at 5:28 pm
While I praise Vander Ark for making a very, very helpful and detailed site, I really don’t think he should publish a book. I believe this because a) the only viable reason would be for financial gain, b) I’m quite happy, as I assume others are, with the website as it is, and I do not require a print version to appreciate it more, and c) if J.K. Rowling came out with one, I would much rather read her encyclopedia, even if (as ZGold states) some of the prospects and facts might not match up evenly.
Vander Ark really should be perfectly happy with the HP Lexicon website, as it is a marvelous fan site; and Mrs. Rowling should be perfectly happy that she is the only one who holds the unseen information that the world craves so badly. (;
Blogging Harry Potter » N.Y. Times on HP Lexicon book fight said,
February 11, 2008 at 6:19 pm
[…] As was previously covered on Blogging Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling is involved in a legal fight to stop Steven VanderArk from bringing his HP Lexicon from the internet into print. […]
choppsATTACKS said,
March 1, 2008 at 1:04 pm
How is this book infringing copyright?
You see, Intellectual Property laws are already a little backwards, but not quite there yet. We have to maintain a fine balance between creative incentive and creative defense. If this court stops VanderArk, how are future reference works going to be affected?
Maybe someone like Harry Potter enough to want a reference book like this on their shelves. VanderArk saw this niche in the market and took advantage of it. Think about how wonderful that is when copyright works out: one creative work was so successful that it left open a market for a reference book. The fans get a succinct lexicon of the Harry Potter universe, VanderArk and his staff reap some monetary rewards for all their hard work and entreprenuerial vision, JK Rowling gets more exposure and I’ll bet you anything that her new encyclopedia would do better because of the lexicon.
Now what do we have? Warner Bros and Rowling ~losing~ fans like me for their unreasonable stance on copyright issues.
Ben Franklin thought patents immoral since the freedom of knowledge makes innovation appear faster. However, what’s the incentive to make a great new invention if you can’t make any money off it? So that’s where patent and copyright law comes in. We must maintain a balance!
dan said,
April 14, 2008 at 3:35 pm
@ ZGold
You are out of your mind if you think Vander Ark put as much effort in creating HP Lexicon, as JK Rowling did creating the series. Harry Potter had been swimming around in her head for over 10 years before HP Lexicon was ever created. It’s not fair for this guy to profit off ideas that aren’t his own. The book wont be a summary of events, or an explanation of plot or theory, it’ll simply be the website in print. Vander Ark will be stealing copyrighted material in the printing of the novel. Literally all of the material will be JK Rowling’s, and none of it his own ideas.