Where's the Grey? (was: That case and that book)

[nrenka]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, Lee Kaiwen <leekaiwen at ...> wrote:

> That would be the more rational argument to make. But that gets us 
> right back to what a breach of copyright means. Copyright protects 
> expression, not ideas, so as long as Steve's lexicon simply restates 
> the ideas in HP in his own words, he is not in violation.

Problem is, when it comes to fiction, it's actually not so clear that
it's only expression and not ideas, by current case law.  Check out
the case here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Rock_Entertainment,_Inc._v._Carol_Publishing_Group

To quote the relevant bit from the analysis of the case here:

"When analyzing the quality of the copied material, the court rejected
the defendant's position that Seinfeld trivia constituted facts and
was therefore not covered by copyright protection. It reasoned that
the "facts" portrayed in Seinfeld originated in the fictitious
expression by the writers of the show. The court noted that the book
did not quiz readers on such facts as the location of the Seinfeld set
or the biographies of the actors, but on characters and events
springing from the imagination of the show's authors."

When you combine that problem with the fact that the Lexicon takes
such a massive amount of information from the copyrighted works (which
is a point the defense did not challenge, IIRC), well...