[HPforGrownups] "Muggle" in Children's Literature
Tandy, Heidi
heidi.h.tandy.c92 at alumni.upenn.edu
Thu Jul 19 14:49:13 UTC 2001
No: HPFGUIDX 22748
At messages http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/15791 and
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/14370 (among other
posts) I've gotten into an extensive explanation of copyright & trademark
law and what they actually say & mean in the United States - I'm an
intellectual property attorney, so matters like this are what I do every
day. Basically, Stouffer's case has many factors to it that make her claims
untennable, including but not limited to the fact that you cannot copyright
a character name, and can only get rights in and to that name if there is a
trademark in the character, and I don't think that Stouffer her shown that
there ever was, or that there is now.
I have a related comment on this which I'm about to post on OT_Chatter...if
you're not a member, you should join! You get to be off-topic...on purpose!
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Glenda and Danny Millgate [mailto:millgate at austarmetro.com.au]
> Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2001 12:43 AM
> To: HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [HPforGrownups] "Muggle" in Children's Literature
>
>
> Real-To: "Glenda and Danny Millgate" <millgate at austarmetro.com.au>
>
> > My personal opinion is that JKR seems to put great store by Honor
> and Truth, so I am a believer that she wouldn't violate that "trust"
> by stealing someone else's work. Opal Dragonfly
>
> Further to this...the thing that makes the Harry Potter books
> great is not the names of the characters...it's the terrific
> storyline, dialogue and the character's personalities. Why
> would she bother stealing names that really are everyday
> names...Harry/Larry, Lilly, Potter etc.? The word Muggle is a
> made up word, in that it doesnt appear as part of the regular
> English language, but there would be no point to her
> 'stealing' it when she could just as easily make up another
> one. She's obviously not lacking in imagination!
>
> I really think that the whole thing is just a coincidence, or
> possibly power of suggestion...if she'd read the other book
> years before, then the names might pop into her head, but its
> still not direct stealing.
>
> If someone came forward with a matching plot, then we might
> take it a bit more seriously!
>
> Glenda
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
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