Comments | e_witness: NYC Legal Showdown

e_witness

NYC Legal Showdown

May 01, 2008 16:17

I've been combing through The Leaky Cauldron's page documenting the WB/JKR vs. RDR Books trial, as objective of an information archive on this topic as one could find on the 'Net. The case has made headline news occasionally, I think, what with WB's fame and JKR's fanbase. If you're unfamiliar with the situation, here's a quick summary: Huge HP fan ( Read more... )

Comments 14

museofspeed May 1 2008, 12:04:57 UTC

Neil Gaiman's blog is god and his response is perfect. Is it really going to affect Rowling's however-many-millions-or-is-it-billions-aire status if this book gets published. If anything, it'll increase sales. I have only been vaguely following the case, but I do think it's sad that Rowling's doing this. Especially as she herself has admitted to using the Lexicon to check details on occasion. (I think. I'm pretty sure I'm not making that up.)

e_witness May 1 2008, 12:41:52 UTC

I'm just now discovering Neil Gaiman's awesomeness, lol. His laid-back, tongue-in-cheek attitude toward life is very attractive. I do wish JKR could take the situation in stride, taking it for the compliment that it is rather than theft and insult. I'm not fond of her passive-aggressive attacks on fans she once promoted. It's like a prickly, Snape mentality almost. She judges something a betrayal and then stabs back ( ... )

ziasudra_fic May 1 2008, 12:28:30 UTC

I was lucky in that I had access to accounts from both sides of the case right from the beginning (couldn't take the days off to go to the court room though...). After weighing and comparing what I read from both sides, I came to appreciate the complexity of the Fair Use issue. As well as the the court clerk who typed up the whole transcript. Wow. That was some serious typing done there. The transcripts were so useful in shedding light on what actually happened inside the court room.

e_witness May 1 2008, 12:51:48 UTC

Goodness, would you really have gone to listen in? I can't stand the thought of sitting through a court case. Reading the transcript alone was simultaneously annoying and funny in a disbelieving way (not to mention a strain on the eyes!); I don't think I'd be able to sit still and respectfully throughout all the technicalities discussed. That's just me though. Law and I don't mix.

How did you get access from both accounts? Most of the media reports I've come across tend to swing a bit against JKR, choosing some of her worst lines to quote. But yes, the whole case is so grey I can no longer make head nor tails of it, and it's disheartening when the judge himself says it would be better settled out of court. Feels like a waste of time, almost.

ziasudra_fic May 1 2008, 13:18:03 UTC

Well, I work ridiculously close to the downtown court houses, so it wouldn't have been too difficult for me to take a morning or an afternoon off to sit in for parts of it. I mostly wanted to have a chance to see first-hand what happened, because I knew from the get-go that all accounts would lean toward one side or the other.

I read a lot from web articles, HP news sites, other authors' blogs, and also various posts (filtered and non) on my flist. I actually think the mainstream media balanced out the TLC accounts well.

I ended up reading the bulk of the transcripts, so in the end I was able to use that as a yardstick to measure each article/account I came across.

e_witness May 2 2008, 15:49:03 UTC

See, I quite liked Leaky's archive on the trial and found it pretty fair. They listed several links to other blogs, stated information without any apparent slants, and most importantly provided links to the transcripts. But then, the majority of the fan commentary and discussion in the forums and elsewhere on the site tended to be pretty pro-Jo, which was mostly fine because the opinions tended to be well-informed, but there was definitely an aura of "hands off the author of our fandom." You're right that that differed from the media.

I haven't really been following the case closely and only found the Leaky archive yesterday. The whole business is murky and confusing and just saddening.

PS - I can't wait to read your entry for the Snarry Games!

Thread 5

labingi May 1 2008, 13:58:29 UTC

Thanks for your very sane commentary. I'm pretty much with you--and Gaiman--thanks for the great link to his blog.

e_witness May 2 2008, 15:35:24 UTC

I don't know if I can take credit for "sane" so much as "confused," but you're welcome! I've never read any of Gaiman's books actually (and the one short story I did read I wasn't very impressed with), but just from occasionally skimming through his blog, he seems like a pretty admirable guy and someone I would really like. He's teaching the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy writer's workshop in LA this summer. :)

spanish_silver May 3 2008, 16:13:30 UTC

The problem is that this is the first time they are drawing the line between fans respectfully adding a creative twist on a published author's work and fans outright plagiarizing it. JKR's series was really the first to be so massively popular on such a large scale that other writers would be able to find an audience for a published encyclopedia (rather than just putting it on the web). So this whole issue is very personal for JKR, having spent years of her life dedicated to these characters and a world that is very real to her, and also personal to her world-wide fanbase, who have connected with her characters and made spinoffs of their own. Everyone is very personally affected by it, but ultimately since it's Rowling's book, she's going to have the final say I think.

e_witness May 4 2008, 15:27:37 UTC

Well, you know my thoughts on this better than anyone could possibly want to know, so I'll let the poor, dead horse alone. ;)

Thanks so much for bearing with my horrific ranting yesterday. Your roommate is lucky to have gotten someone as patient as you this semester. I hope she eventually learns to have a conversation without being condescending. Rhetorical questions should be reserved for the courtroom alone.

Thanks for visiting the Bluestocking Guide anonymous May 9 2008, 20:22:12 UTC

Hi. E.W ( ... )

Re: Thanks for visiting the Bluestocking Guide anonymous May 9 2008, 20:25:09 UTC

That was me
Bluestocking

Re: Thanks for visiting the Bluestocking Guide e_witness May 10 2008, 14:39:22 UTC

Hi, Bluestocking! I've actually been browsing through your blog for over a week; for someone as wholly ignorant of legal matters as I am, it's nice to get some insight into what's really going on and how each side has been faring. I have trouble imagining the Leaky group not appreciating your posts! I guess I would amend my description of them to "eager for information" rather than already well-informed. But I am not a common poster or lurker at their forum, so it is likely I've missed some of the bias there ( ... )