Wednesday, April 23, 2008

JK Rowling and the Horrible Lawsuit.

Disclaimer: Following are entirely the personal views of the Keeper, and in no way, can it be taken as the stand of Felix Felicis or any other Mugwumps. Other mugwumps, in fact are urged to post their views.

First of all, I got my facts from newspapers like TOI, which doesn't account for much, obviously. This article by MTV is where you need to go. And this one by The TelegraphAnd Rowling's website and the Lexicon.

Secondly, a question. How many of us {authors} on Felix Felicis have been told that we will do well to be published? Have we ever seriously thought about it? Have we ever visualised a Harry Potter and the Necessary Sequel by A___ in a book store? Or a Thorns and Roses by Nidhi being sold on the streets? Maybe in idle dreams, but frankly, we write just because we are so crazy about Harry Potter we can't have enough of him, even if we have to right our own stories, rather than re-read JKR's for, like, the 42nd time. Do we do it out of respect, admiration and awe? Or out of contempt or scorn; that, lady, we can do better? More importantly, do we do it for PROFIT?

Duh. We do do it for OUR benefit. It gives us IMMENSE pleasure to dwell for hours and hours in the Potter books (yeah, we are complete dorks, we are). It gives us a kick every time we spot a meaning or a connection (like, remember how we made out RAB was Sirius' younger bro...Or how many of us stayed loyal to Snape?), that somebody else already hasn't spotted. Harry Potter was written by JK Rowling RIGHT when the Internet Age had begun, and caught on as a bit of a revolution. So obviously this 'somebody else' were fellow net users, old fashioned forums on HTML based websites like MuggleNet and the Lexicon. Because our mom's (or the librarians) didn't let us read the books for the nth time, we resorted to the net (or REAL classrooms) to discuss the books with friends and more often, strangers. Everybody's familiar with the story. The Lexicon and MuggleNet have been quite an intrinsic part of the "Harry Potter Movement/Mania". And I think it’s completely idiotic and atrociously presumptious of the owners to admit it.

"Are we the owners of our own works?" JK Rowling herself asks. And I respectfully ask you in turn, are we the owners of others' works?

It’s The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand) all over again. Howard Roark famously said (of course, he couldn't have possibly spoken, owing to the fact he's entirely fictional. What I mean is Ayn Rand said in her book...), “…Now you understand why I dynamited Cortland. I designed Cortland. I gave it to you. I destroyed it…” {Arthur Conan Doyle-style}.

J.K. Rowling created the world of Harry Potter with her own blood as a fuel, it’s her creation, if she wasn’t there it wouldn’t exist. Harry Potter is there because she is; as long as she exists Harry Potter exists, why? Because she was the one who had the courage to breathe life into lifeless paper, to use words to her own will, to create something beautiful for her own enjoyment and sustenance. In short she is the creator; in a direct line of spiritual descendent of Prometheus- she had the courage to invent, to think differently.

On the other hand we have Steve Vander Ark who’s nothing but a second hander, the worst type of man possible in existence. He’s a person who takes the gifts of someone else’s will & intellect and then steals it without any regard to the creator’s effort, why? Because, he needs it, he needs to steal because he doesn’t have the ability to produce; he wants to steal because he doesn’t have the courage to make it himself. He doesn’t deserve the gift of the creator he merely snatches it away like any common thug would do. Yes, I don’t see much difference in him and a common thug. They both get what they want without earning it, this is one of the worst crimes anyone can be capable of doing of.

{Note: there’s a fine line between Fan-fiction and abusing a copyright (Bubbles’ own words). When we’re writing a fan-fic, we’re doing it out of awe and admiration and immense respect for the Author…we’re not pretending that we’re so good that our work can get published and rest in the shelves alongside JKR’s work.}

So who’s guilty? The one who worked all her life to get to where she is the one who created her wealth with her own effort, or the freeloader, who now chooses to loot and plunder her work?

The verdict should be obvious to anyone with the possession of a conscience and a mind.


Steve Vander Ark is publishing a Harry Potter Lexicon; why, I cannot understand. Anybody who’s interested in his Lexicon can go checkout his website, where, btw, he's already earning money from ads and all. And even if the book does get published, aren't we (ok, quite a few of us) all gonna torrent it (not sure if that’s a verb) from somewhere?

Obviously, he's doing it for money and recognition. But there are many who have already done it. Why should JKR pick him out? Maybe coz she didn't expect it from her greatest fan? This kind of a Pettigrew-worthy act? Did the Lexicon ask for her permission before going ahead with this?

Frankly I agree with JKR’s "Harry’s like my child" argument. We do feel that ways about the characters we write about. In fact, since I’ve started writing Thorns and Roses, I’m feeling rather attached to Lily and Scorpius and I swear, if another Mugwump attempts to write a story using those characters, I’m gonna set those yellow birds on them *Hermione-in-anger look*. I’m that possessive. The characters are not even mine and I’m so possessive. Think of JKR. She’s been so magnanimous with all the fan sites and stuff already, it’s her human nature taking over now. She is, but human. (ya, you're right krits, and so was dang, that’s how 'but' is used)

Lets look at it from JKR’s point of view, what has she to gain? A couple of million of bucks? Does it really matter to her now? I don’t think she's doing it for money. At all. She has had experience being poor and jobless; she'd be the first to support another poor, jobless person. Steve is not poor. Nor jobless.

I think JKR is standing up for the rights of all authors and artists and others involved in 'creating' as such. I mean, what’s the point of a copyright, if your Lexicon has to compete with another Lexicon, funnily enough written by somebody else on YOUR ideas. Who, for heavens sake, can know your ideas and thoughts better than you? It’s different when you're dead. But while you're alive and all, you have all the right to write down and your thoughts and sell it as your own. And nobody else can do it. It makes no sense. Its one thing to be a fan, and its another to be a thief.

Another thing JKR said was that lets say, in their respective Lexicons both Steve and JKR write about a Chinese fireball. And it’s not like they're both describing a giraffe. Its super-lame to read a Harry Potter written by one other than Joanne Kathleen Rowling.

{Note: At Felix—we ain’t forcing you to read any of the fan-fic. We’re a group of friends and we use the internet as a tool to share our writings about our favourite fiction hero with each-other, because we can’t meet everyday in person and do it. The internet is our tool...for personal pleasure. Please don’t compare us with Steve Vander Ark}


14 howlers and owlers:

Anonymous said...

Yea, please don't compare us to Steal-Vandalise-Ark.
I totally agree with you, JKR has every right to press charges. What I don't understand is, how could someone be so low? I mean, the least you could do is check if the creator of the work is okay with what you're doing. And being a fan doesnt mean you have the right to infringe upon what someone else has created. Its natural to be possessive of the characters you create. Its just plain greed.
Lets boycott this Lexicon, people.

Anonymous said...

*I mean, its just plain greed on Ark's part. Sheesh. Get carried away sometimes.

The Keeper of the Keys said...

haha, glad you agree, doe. ;)

AP said...

1st thought- OMG!!!! that dungball!!!

2nd thought- shit i feel so guilty myself... i feel like i possess Ron and created him all-by-myself!!

3rd thought- wonder how i wud react if my fans took characters from a book I wrote and made them gay or lesbian (chk out fictionalley.org, ul c wot i mean!)

4th- JKR is god! stand back and stare in wonder

5th- Keeper, ur funny! haha and WHEN CAN WE READ THE REST OF UR FIC??????????????????????????

6th- thanks for keeping me anonymous... as in HPNS by A_____
i just hope u dint 4get my name lolz

7th- Doe, u DO get carried away!!

8th- FELIXFELICIS ROCKS!!! r mission is entirely noble! may peace be with all (JKR especially) and may the mania never die!!

phew!

Ish said...

@Keeper: Log into your e-mail account. Check the reply I had sent you regarding this earlier. And there, that's my comment. :P

Yea but seriously, obviously JKR is justified in suing that guy if he hadn't bothered to take her permission before. I wonder why the media is hell bent on trying to prove that she's gone looney.

Anonymous said...

I don't like Harry Potter and I generally tend to view anything associated with it with shameless bias. :| I don't like JKR because in my opinion she personifies 'selling-out'. I suppose the other guy was kinda wrong too but bleh, she's blowing it way out of proportion. Her PR skills blow.

Occasional Brilliance said...

youve done a great job on this article... i think JKR has every right to press charges... its one thing to be fascinated about the world she created and its another to try and take some of the credit for it away... the least they could have done was to ask her if she was ok before making a decision like this about a copyrighted work...

The Keeper of the Keys said...

@kr--steal-vanadalise...LOL. NO, you didn't think that up did you?
ya, you do get carried away.
i didn't call steve greedy coz we know what being a fan feels like. but he is acting greedy for sure.

@babs--
1)what you didnt know??
2) no, you do not possess ron, nor did you create him. rest assured. *jealous look of fellow ron-fan*
2)saw the website. horrible
4)amen.
5)ok....when was i funny in THIS post. lol. after my exams are over, baby!
6)i know your name is an an+ha-(a)+halfofkrits. go figure.
7)lol.
8)hip hip hurray.

phew. phew.

@ish--been there. done that.
you're RIGHT. this IS the media's fault. they're portraying her as the villain, even though she's gonna win the case.

@bharat--there goes my nicey-wicey comment in waste. hmph.
no, seriously, lol.
shameless bias. we're all familiar with that. *cough*G.I.Joe*cough*
yes, she has 'sold-out' a bit too much, unlike say, Bill Watterson. but thats the reason why harry potter is more fanous than calvin and hobbes, and so on.

@bubbles--haha, i quoted you in my article, your feedback was invaluable.
but thats the problem, i dunno for sure if they asked for permisssion or not. they probably didn't.

Anonymous said...

Let's not bring up the G.I.Hoes again, shall we? :|

And most of the stuff I say is meant in jest, really. Not so with Harry Potter though. Really do dislike the entire thing. It wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't been for all those movies and games and whatnot. Dammit, it's like she's just milking it for all it's worth. Doesn't really sit well with me. But then, I've always been the kind of guy who admires J.D. Salinger and other assorted nutcases. And all those lawsuits. My God, that woman is not just greedy, she's nuts too, but not in an uber-cool way like Salinger.

The Keeper of the Keys said...

@bharat--ok, i owe you an apology. sorry. :(
(i dunno the smiley that represents tears, and besides blogger is rather lame when it comes to smileys)
will never mention g****** again. very childish. (obviously, ok here i go again...)

and you're right, the movies and games suck(ahem, is anybody listening??) i see absolutely no point in playing a game called 'Harry potter and the philo...'. they're plain lame. the movies i watch only coz dad generally insists he has to go watch them, which is mostly because he doesnt want to read the books.

so jkr messed up on that a bit; i suppose loadsa people were coming up with offers and stuff, and she just gave in. its not as if she wasnt earning enough money already. she got greedy there, agreed, but you must understand that movie producers and the likes were literally camping outside her house.

but it doesn't stop her from being one of the best children's author around.

JD Salinger's lawsuit was about his biograpghy and with his letters. in jkr's case its her chracters that are being used. so although salinger had a better cause, jkr's battle is about the rights of an author over her character. like somebody picked up your midnight ice-cream and wrote their versions of the life history of the ice-cream vendors. how would that feel?

ok, maybe jkr is a bigger author, and steve afterall, is only a fan. and the present copyright laws don't really have anything against him. but still, harry potter is HER work, HER child, HER creation, and only she has the right to use it for profit, even if she does go a bit too far.

ya, the typos, i'm worse.

@other mugwumps--ok, don't kill me for this comment.

Anonymous said...

The tears wala emote is ":'(" :P

Anyway, getting back to the issue. I suppose there was a lot of pressure on her. But that's just decisions I didn't like. The real reason I don't like Harry Potter is different. A bit on that now, for digression's sake.

//but it doesn't stop her from being one of the best -children's author- around.//

I am glad you said that. I have a confession to make, I used to be a Harry Potter fan. From the age of 10 to 13. Then I got disillusioned with the series. See, Harry Potter started out as children's fiction. And it was perfectly good children's fiction. Charming, imaginative, entertaining. But then, with it's rising popularity, especially with the adult demographic, Rowling started trying to turn it into adult fiction. Many authors seem to have this tendency to want to be seen as serious adult fiction writers instead of children's fiction writers.

It was when Harry Potter began masquerading as adult fiction that I got put off. The basic concept, the premise, it just won't work as adult fiction. And in the process of trying to pass it off as one, she compromised on the charm. Pity, really.

Also, all the hype got to me.

Steve Vander Ark published a lexicon. It would be different if he published an 8th harry Potter book. Now that would be asking for it. But it's just a lexicon. NCERT publishes school textbooks [shitty ones if I might add] and then so many companies publish guide books based on content from that, with answers to the exercises in NCERT textbooks. They don't go 'You stole our questions! Die motherfucker! DIE!", do they?

To take a less dodgy example, there are Star Wars encyclopaedias, not associated with George Lucas or his company, all over the place. He isn't going ape-shit about it, is he? Rowling needs to take it easy.

Besides, all she needs to do to screw him over is to publish a lexicon of her own. I seriously don't think there would be any competition. No one would buy Steve's lexicon when they can buy Rowling's.

Oh and I really wouldn't mind if someone wrote about the ice-cream vendor as long as he/she does a decent job of it. I'd be flattered actually.


PS - All that swearing is an after-effect of wasting an entire day doing nothing but listening to U2 and reading The Preacher, which, by the way, is an excellent comic. That, coming from me is -something- considering that I don't really like comics.

Anonymous said...

@Bharat- Hmmm uv got a point with the NCERT. It's fun to talk to a disillusioned fan :P
maybe that'll be me when i'm 60 yrs old!! lolz

The Keeper of the Keys said...

@bharat--You're telling me. All that 'snogging' in the sixth book was unnecessary. And the sheer length of the books, from the 4th books onwards. That’s the adult-fiction-izing you're talking about, I presume?
The hype was inevitable, she didn't do it all herself, her publishers were responsible.

Anyway, you have your opinion. It’s appreciated.

And lol, about your NCERT guides argument. Thing is, all that is educational stuff, and I suppose NCERT knows that guides to its ‘shitty’ books are needed. Not that I ever used them guides. And all the NCERT stuff is in the first place, stuff copied from other, better, books.

Harry Potter, believe me, is not educational (until this morning, at least, when I saw the newspaper). It’s purely for entertainment of the readers, and profit of the author. Lets not pretend that JKR writes for charity, or because she likes kids, or to put forward a theory, or something.

Well, there are such encyclopaedias and stuff about most famous works, but it’s not like the author doesn't have the right to oppose them. JKR is just exercising her rights, while George Lucas is choosing not to. Different people, different times, different reasons.

Another example, there were in 1712, 3 friends Newton (of the laws of motion fame), Halley (of the comet fame) and Flamsteed (an astronomer). Now Halley and Flamsteed quarrelled and Newton took Halley's side which led to his Flamsteed refusing to supply his observations to Newton. Newton and Halley, in a vengeful mood, produced a book containing some observations of Flamsteed, without taking his permission, saying that since Flamsteed was being paid by the public, his research was also public property. Flamsteed went to court and won, and had the pleasure of burning all the copies of the work Newton had published.

Let’s skim over the fact that Flamsteed was a major contributor to global warming, and face the fact that JKR has the law on her side. There have been many other such precedents. They do no good to the author's popularity, of course. I'm not denying that. But when any person, and I mean 'any', has a right which is being violated, s/he also has the right to protest, without the fear of what others (and largely the media) thinks of her/him.

She is writing her own Lexicon, of course, but she has the right to screw Steve even without doing that.

Maybe she could relax, and take it easy, but some people can't do it. She's just too possessive. And how do we know, that she really hates the movies and games and merchandise (like any REAL fan does), and can't do anything about it because of her contracts (which she signed, probably expecting something much better), and wants to avoid such a repeat torture for her fans?

That’s all I have to say. Besides the fact that being a member of Felix Felicis, it’s my duty to defend Rowling to kingdom come.

And the ice-cream vendors; what if somebody made a total mess of that story by writing their own version, and totally screwing up the effect you had created, and lets suppose they do this for profit, and that you're already a billionaire because of the ice-cream vendors?

The Preachers, ok, your wish.

@babs-nay, you didn't mean that.

the silver doe said...

This discussion's gone along way without me, huh?

Just a few things i wana add...firstly, I disagree with the idea that JKR is trying to pass off children's fiction as adult fiction. I still maintain that the series has simply grown with the characters, as it inevitably needed to. It couldn't remain stagnant, could it, with an 11-year-old's thoughts pouring from a 17-year-old's brain? (that sounds REALLY weird, doesn't it?)

And well, I think she is pretty tolerant about the fan stuff etc that comes out all the time, even the movies and games and what nots...but if something makes her uncomfortable I'm sure no one should grudge her for speaking against it.

And I *really* envy Brit school kids. HP can be educational, and I'm gona write a nice long post to prove it.

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