I think it was wrong

By Ray Beckerman

September 09 2008

I do agree that the Judge wanted to do the right thing. But I don't agree that he got it right, about copyright law, at all.

There is nothing inconsistent in it being a fair use reference work and it doing a lot of "verbatim copying". The question is whether the copying was substantial in relation to the size of the work copied, which in this case it clearly was not.

Secondly, it did not compete with her 'encyclopedia' for one simple reason... there is no encyclopedia.

Thirdly, it did not compete with her poems and songs because... she never presented any evidence to that effect.

I could go on and on but if the judge wanted to encourage reference works of this nature -- works which greatly benefitted Rowling and popularity of her novels -- he certainly went about it the wrong way.

No one in their right mind will want to do a reference work on Harry Potter.

Ms. Rowling has clearly forgotten where she came from, and should be ashamed of herself.

It's a disgrace.

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Best regards,
Ray

07:09 PM EDT

I think it was wrong

By PJ

September 09 2008

Well, where she came from is the UK, where there is
no fair use. I think there is a cultural gap.

I do agree one would have to be seeking martyrdom to
use her stuff for anything.

However, I think the ruling is saying that exactly:
her stuff is toxic to the touch, because of her
feelings about it, which this judge took seriously,
but I don't think the ruling particularly extended
any restrictions on derivative works for authors who
are less controlling in nature.

07:41 PM EDT