JKR/WB File File Response in Lexicon Suit Before Hearing

J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers have filed a response to the latest filing by RDR Books in the lawsuit against the publication of a book version of the Harry Potter Lexicon. This is the last filing before the March 13th hearing. It won't be until after the hearing until we know what other legal steps will have to be taken.

In the respones JKR/WB say that they have proved likelihood of sucess and that further argue that the book in questions copies a large amount of the Harry Potter books verbatim, saying that the book is “nothing more than a recast of Ms. Rowling’s original text,” which differentiates it from the Ty Beanie Baby book cited by RDR because that book contained “critical and evaluative” elements.

According to Leaky:

The main complaint says that RDR cannot prove that it is likely to succeed on a fair use charge because it does not create “new information, new aesthetics, new insights and understandings.” It also says that attempts to cast it as a “serious book” filled with “scholarly commentary and analysis is merely an attempt to excuse blatant infringement.” It says “alphabetizing” does not render a work transformative and that reorganizing work does not alone render a work in concert with fair use. (It cites Video Pipeline, Inc., vs. Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Inc., on this claim.) It also argues against the notion that the book is similar in its fair use characteristics to Google’s thumbnail image search engine (as maintained by RDR in the last filing) and says there is no original commentary or analysis or “anything else rising to the level of scholarship.” It says RDR’s expert also agrees, citing the filing that says that the book’s chief point is not literary analysis.

It counts 2,034 entries out of the book’s 2,437 entries that lift text directly from Harry Potter, and says the remainder “merely [add] adverbs such as ‘unfortunately,’ ‘sadly,’ or ‘possibly’ to descriptions.

Also included in the response was J.K. Rowling's declaration, in which Jo states:

In my opinion 99% of fans are acting entirely in good faith, and as I have excellent relations with many members of the fan community, I find it devastating to contemplate the possibility of such a severe alteration of author-fan relations. I continue to believe that the online fandom has been a wonderful experience for thousands of people, myself included; that it has become, not only an enormous global book club, but engendered an explosion of creativity and communication rooted in a world we would all like to inhabit.

Jo reiterates that he intends to publish a definitive guide to the Harry Potter world and that the proceeds will be donated to charity. She also notes that she is already in the process of "assemblin and organizing materials from which I will work."

Further information, as there is plenty, concerning the response, is available at Leaky.