Harry Potter Fan Breaks Down in Tears on Stand
Filed under: Fandom, Movie Marketing, Harry Potter
A Harry Potter fan broke down on the stand in court yesterday during the trial for the case brought against him and RDR Books by Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling over a published version of a Harry Potter lexicon. According to this AP piece over on Yahoo about the trial, Steven Vander Ark, a devoted (some might say slightly obsessed) fan of the Harry Potter series, got turned onto all-things-Harry while working as a children's librarian at a Christian school; since then, the now 50-year-old fan has devoted countless hours to building and maintaining the online Harry Potter Lexicon, one of the most popular web sites for fans of the series.
Of course, we've all been following this story for a while now. Rowling never took issue with the website, which included lists compiling all the characters, creatures and spells from the massive and hugely successful series. The trouble started when RDR contacted Vander Ark about doing a print version of the Lexicon. Vander Ark was smart enough to get a clause in his contract that specified the publisher would be responsible for legal expenses if they got sued for copyright infringement -- bet he's glad now he thought ahead about that.
What's kind of sad about this case is that it's pitted Rowling against one of her most ardent admirers, and has divided the world of Harry Potter fandom into those who support Vander Ark's right to publish fan materials in support of Rowling's books, and those who support Rowling's right to publish her own version of a lexicon. Of course, materials supporting literary works have been upheld by courts in the past, so it will be interesting to see what they end up deciding with this case.
While my intellectual sympathies tend to side more with Rowling on this one, given that Vander Ark's Lexicon made extensive use of large quotes pulled directly from her copyrighted material, emotionally, I kinda feel for the poor guy. On the one hand, I suppose he never expected to end up having to face off in court against a woman he idolizes, but on the other, he obviously had concerns about violating copyright to begin with, or he wouldn't have insisted on a clause specifying that RDR would have to pay court costs, right?
I don't know ... given how much money Rowling has made off the Harry Potter series and movie adaptations, seems like the nicest thing she could do in this case (and perhaps, the most healing for Harry Potter fans) would be to just agree to jointly publish the existing Lexicon with Vander Ark, give him a cut of it in recognition of the hard work he's done, largely for free, promoting her books through his website, and move on.
Which way do you think the court is likely to go on this one? And if they decide in Rowling's favor, could that impact other fansites out there?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-16-2008 @ 2:13PM
fadedsilverscreen said...
I agree, Rowling already has enough money for herself. Would it be that big of a deal for her to jointly publish a lexicon with Vander Ark? Then she could put this whole messy business behind her.
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4-16-2008 @ 2:52PM
Aaron said...
Ms. Rowling needs to remember her humble background & where she came from as well, if it wasn't for Harry Potter, I believe she'd still be hurting for $$.
If it was a corporation or some bigwig trying to infinge on her trademark then I would be totally on her side............but it's not.
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4-16-2008 @ 3:14PM
Kyle said...
It may not be Rowling at all. Her publisher would consider it part of the intellectual property they purchased and would be missing the cuts made from something like that.
It seems to be publisher vs publisher but JK's face gets displayed because she's the author of the world that's being legally battled for.
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4-16-2008 @ 3:31PM
LiqwidZero said...
It is. It's Levine Books or Scholastic that are pressing the charges, and it's sad that they're doing it this way. They could have just sent the man a letter telling him not to publish the Lexicon and avoid the lawsuit altogether.
It's the companies that want the money. If you read Jo's website, she states:
"I take no pleasure that the publication has been prevented for the present. On the contrary, I feel massively disappointed that this matter had to come to court at all. Despite repeated requests, the publishers have refused to even countenance making any changes to the book to ensure that it does not infringe my rights."
The Lexicon should had stopped the publishers from doing what they were doing, and this all could have been avoided, but now Vander Ark has to take the blame for his publisher's idiocy.
4-16-2008 @ 3:52PM
Mike said...
Don't give him too much credit on contract negotiations. If the publisher gets publishing rights, they also bear the burden of litigation. It's essentially a battle of content owners. They are the copyright owners here. Not the writer. Now if this were the music industry (where most content is owned by the writer and not the label), you'd see the labels backing out of the fight because they don't own the content outright, pushing the burden to the writer.
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4-16-2008 @ 4:12PM
Kevin said...
Just to make sure its clear, this is not Rowling vs. Van der Ark. Its their publishers battling over copyright infringement. Rowling certainly isn't out to "get" anyone here.
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4-16-2008 @ 11:07PM
John said...
Rowling said her issue with this book being printed is not that he's making money off it and she's not getting a slice, it's the fact that there are a multitude of errors and misinformation in the book.
She doesn't want it published because she doesn't think the work is worthy of Harry Potter basically.
I'm with Rowling on this one btw.
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4-20-2008 @ 6:45PM
Matt Dovey said...
It's worth noting as well - when JKR had her turn in the stand last week, she clearly stated the proceeds from her Lexicon were destined for charity, in much the same way as Quidditch Through The Ages and Fantastic Beasts were published on behalf of Comic Relief. See http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article3621625.ece
I do feel for the guy, who's put so much into HP over the last few years... but JKR's intent to publish the lexicon has been known for a while. Ultimately the publisher is to blame for trying to beat her to the punch, and it's just very sad that Vander Ark got pulled in.
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