...everyone seemed very happy with the Lexicon so long as it remained on the internet and didn't make any real money - it has only earned $6,000 in advertising revenue over seven and a half years. But all that changed last year when Vander Ark signed a deal with RDR books to publish part of the Lexicon website in book form. On - appropriately enough - Halloween, Warner Bros and Rowling took out a temporary injunction against RDR to prevent publication.
Crace, John. "Harry Potter: the last battle." The Guardian, 11MAR08.
11 March 2008
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Interesting.
And I say that coming from the viewpoint of someone who doesn't read Harry Potter (just not my cup of tea). But having just read that entire article, I'm not sure what to make of this yet. I'm on her side until I read a few things in that article, then I waver.
But in wavering, I'm forced to admit that "celebrity" and anything that hyped and lauded over the years automatically put me on the other side of the fence, metaphorically, so I have to realize my feelings on this are tainted.
But I'm not sure what I think about it. Except to say at this point in time, it's interesting.
On one hand, do you really want someone to be able to produce work based on your universe? On the other, he's not writing fiction, but providing non-fiction resources related to the universe. This is something that others have done for ages. It's been done for Star Trek, Star Wars, most role-playing games, etc. Academics, of course, do it all the time.
Stopping people from making a float based on a location in your fiction seems a little extreme to me, but maybe there's more to that story that I never heard, although that's all I ever heard at the time.
The question becomes, as a writer, where's the line between where it's your work and where others are able to explain and interpret it for the larger audience?
That's the thing - on the one hand it's not fiction, but on the other hand, it's still hers.
And the float thing - I can only hope there's a lot more to that story than the little blurb, I hadn't heard anything prior to that and it gave me pause.
But I think there was a huge mixed message sent to this fan by Rowling herself, and her publishers. Endorsing the site, flying the site owner out to a set visit, admiting how strongly they - even the author herself - relied on the information created at that site - - I think all of that, having been so public and praise-worthy, has mixed the message so deeply as to nearly erase it.
Once that horse got a wiff of the barn door opening . . . well, that's the bit that makes me wonder.
I'll agree with you both. It seems to be very on the fence.
Though even if she planned to do her own encyclopedia, I imagine that it would contain content no other volume could. It's her world, and those minute details she's never given to anyone else would be hers to expose.
I can't imagine that people wouldn't buy both, and might even lean more towards the official JKR version.
I'm not on any fence at all. It's her work, her characters, her world. Anyone who wants to market something based on her works needs her permission. End of story.
I'm sure no one is publishing any Star Trek things without Paramount's permission.
I know for a fact that Condé Nast Publications, the ones who now own the rights to The Shadow, Doc Savage, and others are very vigorous in protecting their copyrights and send lawyers to shut down even free websites based on those characters.
Which is as it should be.
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