Beedle the Bard; Lexicon

[Jim Ferer]

Anne: "Nah, it could be way different. Fair use allows you to quote
smallish amounts of stuff (those are technical law terms) in order to
talk *about* it. But IF the RDR book is to reproduce the information
in the Lexicon in printed form, it would in huge part be a repackaging
for sale of vast amounts of copyrighted material, potentially
including text and illustrations taken from HP books, playing and
trading cards, games, movies, and JKR's Lightmaker site. (And the BBC
article that Dave linked to calls it "a book version of a popular
website dedicated to the boy wizard," though I don't know how they
know that.)

Of course, nobody knows for sure what the book is planned to contain,
because RDR won't show anyone. So JKR's people and WB have no choice
but to press ahead with their suit to keep their rights protected, right?"

The problem is we don't know how much of that material the Lexicon
book will contain. Steve's a smart guy and ought to understand the
criticism and parody issues and fair use. He ought to be smart enough
to get advice on those issues where he needs it.

Everybody has handled this badly. RDR's secrecy is one of the causes
of this litigation. Steve should have told JKR what he was doing; the
best possible result would have been [i]The Harry Potter
Encyclopedia[/I], by J. K. Rowling and Steve van der Ark, where Steve
would contribute the vast amount of factual material he and his team
have compiled and JKR her insight and final rulings. The synergy would
be amazing, the ultimate dialogue between author and fan. 

There's been many companion volumes and guides over the years (I have
two relating to the Patrick O'Brian novels, written by Dean King), and
the Harry Potter universe cries out for several. 

It's not too late. A settlement could take this form and benefit JKR,
Steve, and us. 

Jim Ferer