OotP DVD & Lexicon Article
Is everyone rushing out tomorrow to buy the OotP DVD? I have to admit that I'm not too thrilled about it, but I'll do it anyway just for the Snape scenes.
From the Sunday Sale Ads ~
Target: Two-disc set for $24.99, Giant Gift set with discs 1-5 for $79.99. The movie alone is $15.99.
Best Buy: 2-disc Special Limited Edition with a collectible silver Death Eater Mask for $34.99, one per customer. Hi-Def version is $27.99. Regular 2-disc for $22.99. The movie alone for $14.99 (I think). Each of the other movies for $9.99 each. Bertie Botts Beans for $.99 with purchase of any HP movie.
I also saw a new article about the HP Lexicon in the Detroit Free Press, and I put it under the cut:
Harry Potter guru is sued by author J.K. Rowling
Mich. man tried to turn Web site into a book
December 9, 2007
BY EMILIA ASKARI
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
For years, Steve Vander Ark toiled quietly as a children's librarian and teacher at a Christian school near Grand Rapids.
Many folks in Byron Center knew nothing of his alter ego as creator of the Harry Potter Lexicon, a Web site familiar to millions of Internet-surfing muggles as an authoritative guide to the best-selling children's book series ever.
They certainly know now.
Vander Ark's profile has risen beyond the hard-core Potter fans who mob him at conventions -- thanks or no thanks to his literary hero, J.K. Rowling. The author of the Potter series and Warner Bros., producer of the Potter movies, have sued in federal court to block a small Muskegon publisher from converting Vander Ark's fan site into a book.
The suit, filed Oct. 31, pits one of the richest and most famous women in the world against one of her biggest fans, a small-town educator whose devotion to the Potter canon has earned plaudits from Rowling herself. She admits she searches the site for Potter arcana.
One irony of the lawsuit is that Rowling and Warner Bros. have long supported Vander Ark and his site, which is linked to Rowling's Web site.
Vander Ark, 49, quit his school job shortly before the suit was filed to concentrate on the book. It was to be published Nov. 28. But publication is on hold as both sides await a court hearing in February.
"If I had known she would object, I never would have written the book," Vander Ark said, adding he still would love to meet Rowling.
In the meantime, he and his publisher needed legal help, which arrived last week when Stanford University's law school said it would defend the publisher, RDR Books, in the copyright suit for free.
"It goes to the heart of the right of fans to enjoy literature, talk about, comment on it, create tools to understand it better," said Anthony Falzone of Stanford's Fair Use Project
A lawyer for Rowling and the studio did not return calls for comment.
'This is my hobby'
Vander Ark founded the site in 2000 as a side project to teaching at the Byron Center Christian School. The endless supply of spells, potions, wizards and Death Eaters in the Potter series lent itself to his penchant for charts and lists.
Now, with roughly a dozen volunteers, Vander Ark has spent thousands of hours cataloging Potter obscurities such as the books in Albus Dumbledore's office, the lineage of the Malfoy clan and the flavors of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.
"I don't play golf. I don't watch a lot of TV," he said. "This is my hobby."
Jill Battjes, who taught second grade at the school, described him as a wonderful teacher who never forgot what it's like to be a child.
"He's just kind of zany and fun," she said, recalling the time he turned objects in his classroom upside down, just to wake up the students.
Only recently did she come to realize his celebrity standing in the Potter world.
"He didn't talk about it much at school," she said.
Vander Ark has traveled to places such as Copenhagen, Denmark; London, Orlando and Ottawa, where his keynote addresses at Potter conventions filled ballrooms.
"He's sort of a demigod, if you will, in this little subculture," said John Kearns, a stage manager from Chicago who helps run the Web site.
The issue of money
The suit is largely about money.
In public statements and in court papers filed in New York, Rowling and the film studio make the legal argument that the Lexicon book -- a 400-page print version of the Web site -- does not confine itself to the kind of criticism or analysis that anyone may publish about another book.
The book, they say, "regurgitates ... J.K. Rowling's own material," with only a minimum of original commentary.
But the suit then addresses what appears to be Rowling's chief complaint: that a Lexicon book would harm her plans to "produce her own companion book to the Harry Potter she created."
Rowling and her attorneys argue there is a big difference between discussing the Potter books on free Web sites and repackaging those sites to cash in on her work.
Over the years, Vander Ark said he has shunned selling pop-up ads on his site, which gets hundreds of thousands of hits a day at its peak. He prefers to keep the site uncluttered, he said, except for a few, unobtrusive Google ads that he said help to cover expenses.
But when Roger Rapoport of RDR Books read a news story about Vander Ark and approached him last summer with a book deal, Vander Ark said he couldn't resist. If the book stalls, he stands to lose a lot of money in potential royalties.
In the meantime, he said he is in the process of moving to England, where he is researching a new tome -- a guide to real places in the British Isles that remind him of settings in the Harry Potter books. He said he thinks he has found the remote spot in the Scottish Highlands that inspired Rowling's writing about the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Standing at the foot of a mountain by a remote lake, Vander Ark said he could imagine the Hogwarts castle is close. But, "I can't see it," he explained. "I'm a muggle."
The Harry Potter Lexicon is at www.hp-lexicon.org. RDR Books is at www.rdrbooks.com. J.K. Rowling's site is www.jkrowling.com. Contact EMILIA ASKARI at 248-351-3298 or easkari@freepress.com.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071209/NEWS05/712090652/1007
From the Sunday Sale Ads ~
Target: Two-disc set for $24.99, Giant Gift set with discs 1-5 for $79.99. The movie alone is $15.99.
Best Buy: 2-disc Special Limited Edition with a collectible silver Death Eater Mask for $34.99, one per customer. Hi-Def version is $27.99. Regular 2-disc for $22.99. The movie alone for $14.99 (I think). Each of the other movies for $9.99 each. Bertie Botts Beans for $.99 with purchase of any HP movie.
I also saw a new article about the HP Lexicon in the Detroit Free Press, and I put it under the cut:
Harry Potter guru is sued by author J.K. Rowling
Mich. man tried to turn Web site into a book
December 9, 2007
BY EMILIA ASKARI
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
For years, Steve Vander Ark toiled quietly as a children's librarian and teacher at a Christian school near Grand Rapids.
Many folks in Byron Center knew nothing of his alter ego as creator of the Harry Potter Lexicon, a Web site familiar to millions of Internet-surfing muggles as an authoritative guide to the best-selling children's book series ever.
They certainly know now.
Vander Ark's profile has risen beyond the hard-core Potter fans who mob him at conventions -- thanks or no thanks to his literary hero, J.K. Rowling. The author of the Potter series and Warner Bros., producer of the Potter movies, have sued in federal court to block a small Muskegon publisher from converting Vander Ark's fan site into a book.
The suit, filed Oct. 31, pits one of the richest and most famous women in the world against one of her biggest fans, a small-town educator whose devotion to the Potter canon has earned plaudits from Rowling herself. She admits she searches the site for Potter arcana.
One irony of the lawsuit is that Rowling and Warner Bros. have long supported Vander Ark and his site, which is linked to Rowling's Web site.
Vander Ark, 49, quit his school job shortly before the suit was filed to concentrate on the book. It was to be published Nov. 28. But publication is on hold as both sides await a court hearing in February.
"If I had known she would object, I never would have written the book," Vander Ark said, adding he still would love to meet Rowling.
In the meantime, he and his publisher needed legal help, which arrived last week when Stanford University's law school said it would defend the publisher, RDR Books, in the copyright suit for free.
"It goes to the heart of the right of fans to enjoy literature, talk about, comment on it, create tools to understand it better," said Anthony Falzone of Stanford's Fair Use Project
A lawyer for Rowling and the studio did not return calls for comment.
'This is my hobby'
Vander Ark founded the site in 2000 as a side project to teaching at the Byron Center Christian School. The endless supply of spells, potions, wizards and Death Eaters in the Potter series lent itself to his penchant for charts and lists.
Now, with roughly a dozen volunteers, Vander Ark has spent thousands of hours cataloging Potter obscurities such as the books in Albus Dumbledore's office, the lineage of the Malfoy clan and the flavors of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.
"I don't play golf. I don't watch a lot of TV," he said. "This is my hobby."
Jill Battjes, who taught second grade at the school, described him as a wonderful teacher who never forgot what it's like to be a child.
"He's just kind of zany and fun," she said, recalling the time he turned objects in his classroom upside down, just to wake up the students.
Only recently did she come to realize his celebrity standing in the Potter world.
"He didn't talk about it much at school," she said.
Vander Ark has traveled to places such as Copenhagen, Denmark; London, Orlando and Ottawa, where his keynote addresses at Potter conventions filled ballrooms.
"He's sort of a demigod, if you will, in this little subculture," said John Kearns, a stage manager from Chicago who helps run the Web site.
The issue of money
The suit is largely about money.
In public statements and in court papers filed in New York, Rowling and the film studio make the legal argument that the Lexicon book -- a 400-page print version of the Web site -- does not confine itself to the kind of criticism or analysis that anyone may publish about another book.
The book, they say, "regurgitates ... J.K. Rowling's own material," with only a minimum of original commentary.
But the suit then addresses what appears to be Rowling's chief complaint: that a Lexicon book would harm her plans to "produce her own companion book to the Harry Potter she created."
Rowling and her attorneys argue there is a big difference between discussing the Potter books on free Web sites and repackaging those sites to cash in on her work.
Over the years, Vander Ark said he has shunned selling pop-up ads on his site, which gets hundreds of thousands of hits a day at its peak. He prefers to keep the site uncluttered, he said, except for a few, unobtrusive Google ads that he said help to cover expenses.
But when Roger Rapoport of RDR Books read a news story about Vander Ark and approached him last summer with a book deal, Vander Ark said he couldn't resist. If the book stalls, he stands to lose a lot of money in potential royalties.
In the meantime, he said he is in the process of moving to England, where he is researching a new tome -- a guide to real places in the British Isles that remind him of settings in the Harry Potter books. He said he thinks he has found the remote spot in the Scottish Highlands that inspired Rowling's writing about the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Standing at the foot of a mountain by a remote lake, Vander Ark said he could imagine the Hogwarts castle is close. But, "I can't see it," he explained. "I'm a muggle."
The Harry Potter Lexicon is at www.hp-lexicon.org. RDR Books is at www.rdrbooks.com. J.K. Rowling's site is www.jkrowling.com. Contact EMILIA ASKARI at 248-351-3298 or easkari@freepress.com.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071209/NEWS05/712090652/1007