[HPforGrownups] People taking Harry's credit

[Lady Macbeth]

No: HPFGUIDX 74184

Tzvi Said:
>>> Now comes the new point. The interview that Harry gave was to Rita
Skeeter. I assume they gave the rights to Luna's father, but that is just a
disrespectful thing to say to someone. Thanks to the article about you, we
can take a vacation. That didn't seem like a very enthusiastic thank you to
Rita and Harry. I had a problem with this the first time I read the words. I
looked at it and felt that they didn't have a right making money off of
someone else's story.<<<

Lady Macbeth:
Hope you don't plan on working in journalism or publishing your own book!
That, unfortunately, is how the publishing world works.  Chances are, with
Rita being in the position she was in, she would have been very glad to take
the same deal that a lot of journalists and writers get today - they're paid
a flat fee to write the article, and from there on out the publishing
company has full reproduction and royalty rights to it.  It's just like
celebrities or politicians who complain every time someone writes a story
about them, digs up dirt on their family, whatever.  You don't complain
about something if someone is paying you for it, and some of these cases end
in lawsuits, showing very clearly that the person being written about didn't
even have KNOWLEDGE of it, let alone get compensation of any kind for it.

Harry's story is known throughout the wizarding world - any journalist has
the right to pick up a quill and parchment and write about it.  It's
historical fact.  The fact that HARRY told the story just gave the added
draw of it being a first-person account and word-for-word truth.  It's the
kind of twist a journalist LOOKS for in getting an edge on a story.  Harry
got the benefit of knowing that he told the truth, Rita got her name in the
press (which could lead to more jobs) and possibly a flat fee of some kind,
and the wizarding world got the story, with the Quibbler holding
reproduction and royalty rights, which they later sold to the Daily Prophet.

-Lady Macbeth


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