point by point analysis of the Stouffer articles

[rainy_lilac at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 14391

Has anyone made the point that far from being DAMAGED by Harry Potter, 
Stouffer has calculated managed to reap a great deal of benefit 
and free publicity by filing her lawsuit?

After all she hasn't been much a success before this, has she? Now she 
is on CNN and getting coverage through AP.

Ugly! Ugly! Ugly! Feh! Feh!

--Suzanne



--- In HPforGrownups at y..., heidi.h.tandy.c92 at a... wrote:
> First, 2 notes (so nobody else has to go to her website front page & 
> give it "hits"):
> 1. There's an "excerpt" from the book at 
> http://www.realmuggles.com/intro.html
> 2. This info about the "publisher" is provided: Thurman House LLC, 5 
> Park Center Court, Suite 300, Owings Mills, MD 21117, (410)902-9100
> 
> Now, comments on the Ananova version of the article:
> 
> <<In addition, Ms Stouffer says the Rowling books use similar 
> illustrations. At a press conference, Ms Stouffer and her publisher 
> distributed illustrations of Larry Potter the author said she 
> designed in the 1980s. The pictures show at least a superficial 
> resemblance: like Harry Potter, Stouffer's character has oversized 
> glasses and wavy dark hair.>>
> 
> Superficial is right. The picture shown on the Stouffer site shows a 
> grown up man with brown (NOT BLACK) hair and eyes that look to be to 
> be brown. What's the similarity here? That they're both male?
> 
> <<Ms Stouffer is the author of 13 books, which she said were created 
> with the idea of licensing the characters. Her original publisher, 
> Ande, went bankrupt in 1987.>>
> Of course, the article doesn't say how many of the 13 books were 
> published. Also, someone noted yesterday (was it Joywitch?) that the 
> Stouffer books are not in the library of congress - in the US, this 
> means that any books she wrote after 1979 are protected by 
copyright, 
> but if she didn't do registrations when they were published, she 
> doesn't get statutory benefits on the OFF CHANCE she wins her case - 
> among those benefits are additional damages & attorney's fees. BTW, 
> in the US, NOW, a copyright registration costs under $40, including 
> postage. I can't even imagine how cheap it was in the mid-80s... 
> 
> <<A Pennsylvania resident, Ms Stouffer filed her lawsuit last March 
> in the District Court in Philadelphia. The suit names JK Rowling and 
> Scholastic Inc, the US publisher of the Harry Potter books.>>
> The Pennsylvania case was dismissed last year on various legal 
> grounds. There is, at present, no suit in Pennyslvania between 
> Stouffer and anyone relating to the Rowlling books, unless it's been 
> reinstituted without coming to my attention (possible, not probable, 
> since Stouffer would likely get all publicity-happy about it). 
> 
> <<Scholastic, Rowling and Time Warner filed their own lawsuit in 
> November, asking a judge to rule that the Harry Potter books do not 
> violate Stouffer's trademark and copyright.>>
> This implies that it was filed in November 2000, after Stouffer's 
> suit. It wasn't. It was filed in November 1999, and some of the 
> counterclaims Stouffer filed in this litigation have been dismissed 
> already.