[cc-community] fan sites, fair use, and Harry Potter

Parker Higgins parkerhiggins at gmail.com
Sat Mar 1 02:35:31 EST 2008


It's an odd line for the encyclopedia maker to pursue, certainly, but
because it seems unnecessary.  This encyclopedia isn't a "derivative work,"
as such, even though it's based on the Harry Potter series; as Tim Wu has
pointed out in Slate, this book and the websites that preceded it are
discussions, not adaptations.   It's the reason this e-mail thread, though
it speaks of Mr. Potter at length, isn't infringing.  Rowling and her
publishers should likely get used to the idea of commercial "discussion
works" being produced, because there are more to come.

I'm guessing the hang-up is the competing encyclopedia she's producing.  As
if that won't make a boatload of money anyway.

In any case, REAL derivative works will still be subject to the same laws,
whether the original is CC licensed or not.  Discussions, references,
guides, and all other non-derivative-but-related works will remain outside
the realm of an author's copyright.

(Incidentally, as I re-read Wu's Slate piece on this, I'm struck by how good
it is.  http://www.slate.com/id/2181776/pagenum/all/ )

On Sat, Mar 1, 2008 at 2:13 AM, Greg London <email at greglondon.com> wrote:

> Someone is commercially publishing an unauthorized encyclopedia of the
> Harry Potter universe. The interesting bit was that the publisher is
> arguing that since Rowling allowed free, fan-based websites, their efforts
> to sell a commercial book were justified.
>
> Rowling has been one of the most friendly authors as far as allowing fan
> based derivatives goes. It's a weird argument that the publisher is making
> though. If the courts actually upheld it, that would mean that CC-NC would
> also open authors up to unauthorized commercial derivatives of their
> works.
>
> I assume the courts aren't going to buy that one, but who knows.
>
> http://omg.yahoo.com/jk-rowling-bashes-harry-potter-lexicon/news/7070?nc
>
>
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