Books of Magic vs Harry Potter

[Steve]

---  "stacygalore" <stacygalore at ...> wrote:
>
> The thread about Stardust got me thinking about Neil
> Gaiman and his graphic novel "Books of Magic". ...  
> A good friend of mine refused to read Harry Potter 
> because he was convinced JKR ripped off Neil Gaiman.
> Has anybody heard of this theory?  ...
>

bboyminn:

Well, let's see. Harry Potter has magic; Lord of the 
Rings (LotR) has magic. Harry Potter has wizards,
LotR has wizards. Harry Potter has elves, LotR has
elves. Harry Potter goes on a quest, Frodo goes on a
quest. So, Harry Potter must have ripped off LotR? 
Believe me there are thousands who believe this is
true.

But then there are hundreds of books that use those
same themes. In fact, those themes go back many 
hundreds of years. Perhaps even a 1,000 years or more.
So exactly who ripped off who? 

The point is that Tolkien did not invent Elves or
wizards any more than JKR or Gaiman did. Further, 
there are some things that you are allowed to steal.
Most authors steal to some extent from others. But
there is a difference between using the same concept,
and actually stealing the story and characters. 

So, I guess my point is that there are some things
that can be legally 'stolen'. Since there hasn't 
been a lawsuit by Gaiman, I suspect he doesn't feel
like he was ripped off. If the author doesn't think
so, I don't see why your friend should think so.

For what it's worth.
Steve/bboyminn