That case and that book - "Copy"

[Carol]

Alla:
> 
> Well, yes to support one's argument that defendants copied, it is 
> helpful to try to make defendant's witnesses to admit that they 
> actually...copied.
> 
> I mean, is there something wrong with this maneuver, as long as it 
> seeks to elicit something that plaintiffs allege in good faith 
> defendants did? <snip>



Carol responds:

"Copy" as generally used means copied verbatim, as in photocopied, or
as in Ron and Harry copied Hermione's essays. The term is not
generally used to mean "quoted passages from" unless those passages
are not enclosed in quotation marks or in block format, especially
when the source is cited.

If I'm writing an essay on Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind" and I
quote stanzas from the poem to support or illustrate my points, would
any lawyer in his right mind say that I "copied" Shelley's poem? I
certainly hope not. Even if I paraphrased one of his prose essays, say
"On Love," not picking up his exact phrasing and making it clear that
the ideas were Shelley's, not mine (in contrast to my interpretation,
which I would clearly distinguish from his words), no lawyer familiar
with the fair use doctrine would use the term "copying" with reference
to what I was doing. The only distinction between Steve V's quoting
and copying and mine is that his book does not clearly fall under
literary criticism, so it requires a great deal of summary and
synthesis as opposed to analysis. But a quotation is still a quotation
and a paraphrase is still a paraphrase, and neither of them is copying
unless the paraphrase is too close to the original wording and
unacknowledged.

JKR's lawyers are using a term, "copying," that suggests plagiarism.
If they mean "quoted" (an/or closely paraphrased), that's what they
should say. But they don't say that because "quoted" has no
connotations of plagiarism or cheating. No wonder Steve V. and
Rapaport don't want to state that that's what the book is doing. And
they are quite correct. 

*Of course* the book uses quotations and paraphrases, just as it uses
summary and synthesis, along with some outside materials, common
knowledge, and commentary. And, of course, by its very nature, it
would require reasonably large amounts of the original text. But for
the lawyers, or JKR herself, to imply that Steve V. *copied* JKR's
books as her characters copy each other's homework is just ridiculous.

Carol, hoping that the judge sees through this shoddy tactic