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}
