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Warner Bros., J. K. Rowling Sue over School Librarian’s Potter ProjectWarner Brothers Entertainment and J. K. Rowling filed suit October 31 for copyright infringement against independent publisher RDR Books based in Muskegon, Michigan, demanding that it halt plans to publish The Harry Potter Lexicon, a book version of the website created by school librarian Steve Vander Ark. The complaint states that the unauthorized 412-page encyclopedia of all things Potter, scheduled to be released in the U.S. at the end of November and in the U.K. several weeks earlier, is “troubling as it is in direct contravention to Ms. Rowling’s repeatedly stated intention to publish her own companion books to the series and donate proceeds of such books to charity.” On November 8, RDR Books offered to delay the publication of the Lexicon temporarily. Rowling and Warner Brothers, who received a proof of the Lexicon November 7, must defend their request for a preliminary injunction by January 7, 2008. RDR Books must respond by January 22, and a hearing is set for February 6. Vander Ark recently resigned as school library media specialist at Byron Center Christian Schools in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to devote his time to lecturing and working on his next book, which will also be related to the Harry Potter phenomenon. According to RDR Books Publisher Roger Rapoport, the suit came as a surprise. He told American Libraries that Vander Ark, now considered an expert on the Potter series, has worked amicably with Rowling and Warner Brothers since he began the Harry Potter Lexicon website in 2000. According to the publisher, an A&E cable-TV interview with Vander Ark is even slotted for inclusion on the upcoming DVD release of the film version of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. In 2004 Rowling herself gave the online Harry Potter Lexicon a “Fan Site Award,” writing on her website: “This is such a great site that I have been known to sneak into an internet cafe while out writing and check a fact rather than go into a bookshop and buy a copy of Harry Potter (which is embarrassing). A website for the dangerously obsessive; my natural home.” Over the past seven years, the site has acquired a large readership and according to RDR Books now receives 25 million visits annually. Rapoport said he was surprised the plaintiffs didn’t want the website shut down. But a key difference, the complaint contends, is that “while Ms. Rowling has permitted some fan sites certain latitude to make use of the material in her books, these sites are generally free to the public and exist to enable fans to communicate, rather than to permit someone to turn a quick and easy profit based on her own creativity.” In September, allegedly after Rowlings’ agent found sales listings for foreign rights to the book on PublishersMarketplace.com, Vander Ark and Rapoport began receiving letters from the plaintiffs asking for the book project to be stopped. In the midst of a heated correspondence, Rapoport wrote Warner Bros. with suspicions that Vander Ark’s “Hogwarts Time Line” was plagiarized for use as a DVD feature, citing a typo from the website version that also appeared in the Warner Bros. version. He characterized his letter as “positive.” In an October 31 posting on her website, Rowling expressed mixed feelings about the suit: “This decision was reached, on my part, with immense sadness and disappointment, and only because direct appeals for a reasonable solution failed. . . . 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.” Rapoport says that the Lexicon is different from any companion piece Rowling herself might write. “This is truly a reference librarian project,” he said. “I don’t think there’s anybody who thinks that somebody that’s sold this many books could possibly be threatened by a librarian writing his own encyclopedia.” Asserting that Vander Ark was supported by a team of some 12 other librarians and professors, Rapoport said the school librarian has created a text that has become “the missing index” to the series. He added that Vander Ark has also written critical essays on Harry Potter and keynoted conferences related to the series. “He bridges the gap between fandom and academe,” Rapoport said. The Harry Potter Lexicon, with a cover price of $24.95, was originally slated for a print run of 5,000. Rapoport said that figure may now be much greater because of the attention brought on by the lawsuit. Still, he told AL, “I’m very optimistic that this will have a happy ending, and that everyone will enjoy the book, including our opponents.” Posted November 2, 2007; revised November 15, 2007; updated November 21, 2007. |
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