For those of you who like fan fiction, fan art, and other fan pursuits, I think the J.K. Rowling lawsuit against the Harry Potter Lexicon book will be an interesting case to watch.

I think some people might just see it as her trying to protect her money, but really it’s about protecting the copyright. By giving fans a free reign online, it encourages fandom. Even the unauthorized “what’s going to happen next” books aren’t exactly competition and not paid attention to too much by the publishers. But a book like the Lexicon does use her characters and her world as its entire basis. So the question becomes, because it’s a reference book, will the courts allow it?

Honestly, I don’t know. But if they are allowed to publish, it will make fans a lot braver about publishing things that might be copyright infringement, like other reference books or even fan art. Of course, it all depends on why exactly the court would say they are allowed to publish the book. But the author would lose some control over who published what using their name and world. The reason Rowling is fighting this isn’t so much against the Lexicon, but the precedence it could set for other who want to take her work and make money off of it. And many of those people would not be doing it with the fans best interests in mind, but instead to make money. So it becomes an issue of she can’t let one person do it, because that sets the precedent.

Anyways, for fans of all kinds of works, I think this case will set some new standards and question old fan accepted copyright rules.

The Leaky Cauldrone also has a wonderful breakdown of both side’s arguments. A good place for those intersted in copyright law to start. - http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/2008/2/28/jkr-wb-respond-in-lexicon-suit

News Article from Reuters

Here is an interesting case study comparing the court cases of a Seinfeld trivia book and a parody book, The Wind Done Gone.
http://www.ivanhoffman.com/seinfeld.html

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