KJ

Neville Longbottom rules all.

I could say more about it, but that's what will stick with me: Neville and his crowning moments of awesome. ( Spoilers, I guess, although nothing major that wasn't in the book. )

With this entry, I am over halfway through my list of questions, but we aren't yet halfway through the month of November. Although I'm sure I can find a way to round out the month on my own, it would be more fun with help! So if you haven't left a question or a topic, or even if you have, hop on over! (LJ or DW)

All right, on with the show. renay asked what source I always wanted to write for but haven't, and why not.

I have, in my life as a fannish writer, written fic for very few sources. The only canons I've written more than one story for have been in the Final Fantasy universe; I have one Sunshine story, one Star Trek story (plus a crossover with FFX-2, and another WIP), and buried somewhere in the depths of my journal is a Harry Potter character sketch that never came out from behind friendslock. Oh, and a Friends/Xena commentfic that I once wrote for a lark. I have a semi-abandoned Kingdom Hearts/X-2 crossover that's half-written, and my Alice in Wonderland/Pirates of the Caribbean work-in-progress that I am determined to finish before the year is out. (That's the crossover I was being mysterious about earlier this year; maybe going public with it will get my ass in gear to work on the damn thing.) Generally, when I start work in a new canon, it's because there's a story in my head and it's demanding that I let it out, and usually the idea is consuming enough that I will start to work on it, even if I never finish or publish. That's what got me started in Final Fantasy X-2 in the first place, that's what spurred me into every other canon I've dabbled in.

I can think of one bunny that bounced around for a long time that never got started, even as an abandoned WIP, and that was for Harry Potter, an idea about Dumbledore and Snape and Felix Felicis that came to me not long after finishing Half-Blood Prince. I thought about that one a lot, but a number of things held me back: not being as familiar with the canon; the hugeness and divisiveness of the fandom; the idea that, if anyone noticed the story, suddenly I'd be on a much larger stage; the knowledge that suddenly I'd be writing in a universe that people I know outside of the fandom context are familiar with and the pressure that comes with that. I told myself I was just waiting to find the time to re-read HBP again, but other projects took over, and then the bunny was jossed by Deathly Hallows, and I set it aside for good. I may resurrect it as an AU someday, but I don't really expect to ever get the momentum on that one back.

30 Days of... Project! Complete list of questions / Ask a question on LJ or on DW.

Just got back from seeing Harry Potter. It was quite good, possibly the best of series so far, overall. Have to process before I'll have anything more to say, I think.

I also finished the final battle in FFIV, then watched the ending movie, then started with the new game plus (or whatever it's called in this version). Are you not supposed to get the opening CGI movie with the new game plus, or did I make a mistake, or does it come later? Mysterious. Anyway, this I will also need to process, but I liked it too, overall.

Finally, I made good progress in the FFXII replay. Just now starting out for the Garif. This replay has been both more fun and more compelling than I expected. I'm having to resist running downstairs to play right now, in fact.

I'll probably end up writing full posts for all three of these things eventually, since anything useful I could say about any of them would be filled with spoilers. Watch this space.

Let me show you them.

So those of you have been following this story presumably already know that J.K. Rowling won her lawsuit against the publisher who was going to put out a book version of the HP Lexicon website. I have been paying keen attention to this story for reasons of both fannish and professional interest: fannish, because how this case plays out could have significant implications for fan-created content both online and off, and professional because I deal with questions of copyright and fair use in my work as a college librarian almost every day. From what I could gather of the facts of the case, Rowling was in the right here, so I was pleased to see the judge rule in her favor, but I was curious to see the reasoning and learn what implications, if any, there were for fandom and the world of academia.

So I read the decision, all 68 pages of it. Which, if you have any interest in the case or in copyright issues in general, I totally recommend; the text of the decision is actually quite readable, for a legal decision, and for the most part I had no trouble following it at all. The full text is available as a PDF here. But if you just can't see wading through the whole thing, praetorianguard provides an excellent summary. (Even if you do slog through the entire decision, you should go ahead and read her summary anyway, because it explains some of the legalese. Plus, it's funny.)

The gist of the decision is that the Lexicon violates JKR and Warner Brothers' copyrights because it takes too much material from the books, in particular because it copies descriptive language straight out of the text. However, the judge specifically stated that a reference work based on a creative work is transformative rather than derivative, because it serves a different purpose from the original books (mostly -- the two "textbooks" by JKR, also named in the suit, are essentially reference books and the Lexicon is on much shakier ground with the amount of text it copied from them). The Harry Potter novels were written to tell an entertaining story; the HP Lexicon was written to serve as a reference work. From the decision:

While the Lexicon, in its current state, is not a fair use of the Harry Potter works, reference works that share the Lexicon's purpose of aiding readers generally should be encouraged rather than stifled.

The fan side of me is pleased with this language; the librarian is thrilled. If the assertion that a reference guide based on a work of literature is transformative stands up (and it may not; here is an interesting analysis that claims the judge in this case went too far), then this ruling a boon to fans of literary criticism and textual analysis everywhere. It's not that no reference book can be considered a fair use, it's just that this particular reference book doesn't meet the standard:

The transformative character of the Lexicon is diminished, however, because the Lexicon's use of the original Harry Potter works is not consistently transformative. The Lexicon's use lacks transformative character where the Lexicon entries fail to "minimize the expressive value" of the original expression. A finding of verbatim copying in excess of what is reasonably necessary diminishes a finding of a transformative use. As discussed more fully in analyzing the "amount and substantiality" factor, the Lexicon copies distinctive original language from the Harry Potter works in excess of its otherwise legitimate purpose of creating a reference guide.

It's possible that the publisher will appeal, so this may not be over yet. As always, Fandom Wank is the best place for the latest and greatest information on this case. All hail cleolinda, for reals.

An instructor left a New York Times article about the HP Lexicon lawsuit on my desk over the weekend because he thought I might be interested. It always amuses me when people at work point me to stories that I've already discovered via fandom.

One of the most interesting things to me about this story is how anti-Rowling all the coverage has been. "Look at the greedy author, protecting her copyrights!" She used to be a media darling, but now they are turning on her.

I do think this article has interesting and compelling things to say about fair use, even if I don't believe this is the best case to champion the cause. What gets me is this: had the Lexicon been complied and presented differently, I would argue that it would count as scholarly commentary -- if it quoted less extensively from the books, if it included the essays on the site (with the permission of the authors, of course), if it were clearly branded as "unauthorized". But none of these things are true. Still, I have more mixed feelings about this case than I used to. Lawrence Lessig is a name that will catch my attention. If his organization is defending the Lexicon, then there might be something to it. Then again, he may be just the sort of crusader who will jump on any "raurgh, copyright holder evil!" bandwagon. As always, more research may be the answer.

Interesting article on Salon that is not so much about Dumbledore as about JKR's choice to keep doling out information about backstory and what happened after the books were over.

Also some thought-provoking letters, particularly this one.

No time for analysis now; I just wanted to throw this out there. Maybe after work.

( So I saw Order of the Phoenix today... )

So I still haven't reserved a copy of Deathly Hallows anywhere. This is perhaps idiotic of me, since I do want the book on the first day. (Avoiding spoilers is priority one! I've already filtered about half my communities out of my friends list, just in case.) I should get my plan in place sooner rather than later, huh?

Can't post; reading.

Actually it was just a really busy weekend. I'm about 3/4s of the way through and wow! Yesterday morning, I was on a bus with a bunch of Mawrters and mentioned that I was about halfway done (which I was at the time), and many people turned to me with instant jealousy and demands to know what happened. "Do you really want to know?" I asked. No, no, no. But I couldn't help but taunt them. "I know who Harry likes, I know who Harry likes..."