I was wondering whether the latest kerfluffle from my crazy little fandom had penetrated into the rest of the interwebs..... :D
And you've really zoomed right in on what's most relevant for the pan-fandom community. If a judge were somehow to rule that JKR sacrificed her copyright to Harry Potter, and gave up her ability to regulate the publication of a for-profit book that appropriates a lot of her material, simply by not suing a free website — well, every company would sue every fannish web site in existence to safeguard their own interests.
Fortunately for us I think the odds of this being the legal decision are pretty miniscule!
I have been a little surprised to see a number of non-fandom blogs coming down against Rowling. But to be honest, they seem usually to have an agenda and a preferred story that blocks them from actually paying attention to what's really going on — from a simple "the richest person is always wrong" prejudice to a neo-maxi-zoom-all-information-must-be-free!! true believer.
The best part of the whole thing has been the statements from Vander Ark's publisher, which couldn't have been funnier if they were trying. Did you catch all that? Comparing cease and desist orders to the atomic bombings of Japan, saying they weren't in it for the money, they were in it to bring Harry Potter information to impoverished third world children.... I think I collected a bunch of them in my journal post.
no subject
And you've really zoomed right in on what's most relevant for the pan-fandom community. If a judge were somehow to rule that JKR sacrificed her copyright to Harry Potter, and gave up her ability to regulate the publication of a for-profit book that appropriates a lot of her material, simply by not suing a free website — well, every company would sue every fannish web site in existence to safeguard their own interests.
Fortunately for us I think the odds of this being the legal decision are pretty miniscule!
I have been a little surprised to see a number of non-fandom blogs coming down against Rowling. But to be honest, they seem usually to have an agenda and a preferred story that blocks them from actually paying attention to what's really going on — from a simple "the richest person is always wrong" prejudice to a neo-maxi-zoom-all-information-must-be-free!! true believer.
The best part of the whole thing has been the statements from Vander Ark's publisher, which couldn't have been funnier if they were trying. Did you catch all that? Comparing cease and desist orders to the atomic bombings of Japan, saying they weren't in it for the money, they were in it to bring Harry Potter information to impoverished third world children.... I think I collected a bunch of them in my journal post.