Rowling fights US army over Harry Potter

[emad]

Sunday Times
Toby McDonald and Karin Goodwin



LAWYERS acting for J K Rowling are heading for a legal battle with the US army over a training manual that features characters similar to those in the Harry Potter books and films.

They are examining whether the publication, which has been distributed to soldiers at US army bases around the world, breaches copyright rules. Harry Potter¡¯s intellectual property is owned by the author and the images are owned by the film company Warner Bros.

The magazine, The Preventive Maintenance Monthly, includes a cartoon character called Topper, a boy wizard, who attends Mogmarts school of magic. Harry Potter, Rowling¡¯s boy wizard creation, attends the Hogwarts school of magic.

In the magazine, army officials are given a lesson from Professor Rumbledoore and his staff, a name strikingly similar to Rowling¡¯s Professor Dumbledore. Other characters in the magazine include professors McDonagal and Snappy, and a Miss Ranger. The Harry Potter books feature professors McGonagall and Snape and Hermione Granger.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-1472447,00.html

[norml]

1. "Mogmarts school of magic"

LOL!

[jdj]

18. How UN-CHRISTIAN. LOL.

I can't wait for the next person that calls the Harry Potter series devil worship.

So, now our "christian army" has a training manual based on devil worship.

All Rowling needs to do is get this publicized and in the hands of some of those christian brass and the whole problem will just go *poof*!

[Pithy Cherub]

24. the rightwing "christian brass" wacko's are rapturously immersed in

a SpongeBob SquarePants spectacular cleanup on aisle 5...

Harry Potter is free to ride his broomstick unmolested at this time...
;)

[emad]

2. Good counter-intelligence story this....

“We have shared the information about this magazine with Warner Bros and I am sure that I will speak again with them shortly,” said Neil Blair, Rowling’s lawyer.

“I do not believe that we or they were approached about this. As you would expect, both J K Rowling and Warner Bros take protection of their property rights very seriously.”

The author, who is based in Perthshire and gave birth to her third child last month, is notoriously protective of her image and has set strict embargos on all her Harry Potter books.

Warner Bros and Rowling, who is worth an estimated £450m, have previously quashed attempts to cash in on the series by authors in several countries.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-1472447,00.html

[emad]

35. Addendum: Smell like a sting in its inception....Ted Turner must

shitting bricks right now, also one conman, convicted sex offender and frauster called Paul Stewart who is "JK Rowling" natural father and is enmeshed in this corrupt deception that has been spun for the last 7 years.

[gandalf]

48. Sting? You think Rowling is being provoked

to start a law suit, which could bring some news about the creation of Harry Potter?

You once posted something about a bet, which was not successful at that time...

[emad]

3. Rowling is heading straight to jail

http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s1i4557

[AP]

13. I find hatred of Rowling (such as that displayed by AS...

...Byatt) almost pathological.

People who can't stand the fact that a single mother who was unemployed and receiving public assistance could write pretty decent popular literature which criticizes tradition and inherited privilege should probably talk to a therapist about why they have such big problems with that.

[Bridget Burke]

17. Your link is a satirical site.

A bit like The Onion.

You do know that, don't you?

[emad]

34. I am truly astonished! Gobsmacked, bemused and flabbergasted..

"You do know that, don't you?" - you too might get a clue about this if you ever check the blogsite links of DU member's profiles.....

[AP]

38. Ohmygod. All this time, I thought you were serious.

What a relief.

[emad]

40. Deadly serious. But TheSpoof is TheSpoof.

JK Rowling, her publishers, literary agent and Warner Brothers all going down the toilet bigtime.
Also her natural father.

Can hardly wait.

[AP]

50. Wink, wink.

So, no relatives in Monterey? You don't really idolize Churchill? You don't hate Rowling?

Wow.

That's so funny.

[emad]

61. Family decision to donate the January '65 Winfield House footage

to the Truman Library & Museum in Independence, Missouri. Also other memorabilia relating to Churchill and Harry S Truman that isn't already held by the Trust. Some footage that was loaned to the BBC is being edited and may be shown as part of their 60 years of end of WWII retrospective that has begun to be screened.

Churchill was an awesome man and has my undying respect as well as of all my family, the older generation of which knew him professionally as well as personally.

As for Rowling, you cannot imagine how much I am enjoying the unravelling of this sting op cited in the weekend's papers.

One golden rule in publishing: copyright is sacrosanct. The US military publishing the magazine may actually have written permission from the legal copyright holder. They got her by the short and curlies this time.

[Bridget Burke]

54. And who, pray tell, is her natural father?

(This ought to be good.)

[AP]

57. Robert Maxwell. He's everyone's natural father according

to conspiracy theorists.

[emad]

62. This is Maxwell's daughter, piggy in the middle:

Gordon Thomas and Martin Dillon write extensively about Maxwell's proven convictions for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, conspiracy to steal, conspiracy to commit treason:



As for Rowling, the denounement of this nasty and degrading conspiracy to pervert will be all the more delicious now she's feeling lucky enough to try to sue her way out of trouble.

[AP]

63. Heh heh.

You're good. Keep it coming.

[paineinthearse]

4. Subscribe today!

http://bookstore.gpo.gov/subscriptions/subs017.html

PS, THE PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE MONTHLY
LIST ID PSPMM
File Code 2G
SuDocs Class Stem D 101.87:

Monthly. Published for soldiers assigned to combat support units, and soldiers with organizational maintenance and supply duties, this periodical uses cartoons to illustrate maintenance of trucks, military vehicles, and military equipment.

S/N: 708-046-00000-1
Price: $45.00 In Stock - Warehouse and Retail (Priced)

[trogdor]

47. Gee, I was wondering...

...where I might get maintenance tips for my Bradley Fighting Vehicle. It's the kewlest thing in the parking lot at work, but I have a hell of a time working on it.

[lenidog]

5. The intresting thing about this

is DC Comics had and may still have a (I am out of the loop on this) a comic called "Books of Magic." It is the story about a young boy named Tim Hunter who is English, about Harrys age, wears glasses, brown hair, orphaned because his parents were killed and has the potential to become the greatest practitioner of magic in history and doesn't know it at first. Though he doesn't go to a school of magic he does have a pet owl and learns from other practitioners. In other words he is the prototype for Harry Potter and was created before Rowling put paper to pen.

[shadowknows69]

6. good call on the books of magic thing

maybe DC should have their lawyers visit rowling?

[Bridget Burke]

21. Neil Gaiman wrote The Books of Magic. Here's his opinion:

Last year, initially The Scotsman newspaper -- being Scottish and J.K. Rowling being Scottish -- and because of the English tendency to try and tear down their idols, they kept trying to build stories which said J.K. Rowling ripped off Neil Gaiman. They kept getting in touch with me and I kept declining to play because I thought it was silly. And then The Daily Mirror in England ran an article about that mad woman who was trying to sue J.K. Rowling over having stolen muggles from her. And they finished off with a line saying : And Neil Gaiman has accused her of stealing.

Luckily I found this online and I found it the night it came out by pure coincidence and the reporter's e-mail address was at the bottom of the thing so I fired off an e-mail saying: This is not true, I never said this. You are making this up.

www.januarymagazine.com/profiles/gaiman.html

There's more at the link.

[LWolf]

7. According to Neil Gaiman's site,

the very first of the "The Books of Magic" comics was first published in 1990. I haven't read them, but I've enjoyed some of his novels.

According to Rowling, in the biography section on her website, she began writing the first HP in 1990.

I don't know if they are really alike, since I haven't read the comics; that series seems to have continued on with several other authors.

I hope her lawsuit is successful.

[AP]

16. Copyright doesn't give you a monopoly over an idea. It protects

the expression of that idea.

A young boy with glasses and an owl who can do magic is just an idea. Just because DC had a comic book with that character doesn't mean they can prevent every other story about a young boy with magical powers and an owl for a friend. And I'm sure that DC wasn't the first author to use those ideas.

If you give the character a name, and start rounding out that character, then you have a copyrightable character. If you put that character in a situation, you have a copyrightable story.

If Rowlings named her character Tim Shunter, and he did things that DC's Tim Hunter did, then you'd have copyright infringement.

Remember the woman who sued Rowlings for infringement? She claimed she self-published a story which Rowlings copied. It turned out that the font, paper, etc., were all unavailable at the date she claimed to have created her work. Well, she didn't just fabricate a story about a boy wizzard with glasses and a pet owl. To create an actionable infringement claim, she gave all her characters names which were two or three letter transcriptions of Rowling's character's names.

[shadowknows69]

27. I know it's not actionable on Gaiman's part

but it is quite a coincidence.

[AP]

28. Gaiman says they both owe the character to TS White.

It's not a coincidence. It's how popular mythologies are built.

Do you think the Superman creators should have a copyright on characters with super powers and a secret identity?

[shadowknows69]

33. I think the greeks might hold that one

They even lent hercules to marvel comics for a while and don't forget our favorite norse god of thunder Thor. COMICS!!!!

[CatBoreal]

58. Actually the idea of a secret identity...

...was first put forth by Baroness Orczy in the Scarlet Pimpernel books.

[derby378]

8. And the four houses at Mogmarts?

That's easy - Gryffinmerv, Hawkeypuk, Rayvingit, and Swyvelhed.

[area51]

9. moralists

Just remember, it's the "moral" party that's in the White House now. </sarcasm>

---

"Prosperity is just around the corner." -- Herbert Hoover
"The economy has turned a corner." -- GW Bush

Herbert Hoover = GW Bush

Neither man cared about the Depression their economic policies created.

[LizW]

10. A Harry Potter-like manual for the Army?

How old are our soldiers? Eleven?

[donsu]

23. our troops don't read very well and need comics for training

and their writing skills are even worse.

[obnoxiousdrunk]

41. They read at the

same level as their Commander in Chief.

[DistantWind88]

45. True, many products

of our public schools don't read well.

[trogdor]

49. Not far from the truth.

It's better now than in the 1960's, when PS Magazine started with it's current group of recurring characters. Back then, Connie and Bonnie showed a lot more leg and cleavage, and Bonnie had a really happenin' 'fro. Nowadays, thanks to the U.S. Army PC Police Battalion, they dress more like somebody's Mom and Bonnie's discovered Condi Rice brand hair straightener.

The whole idea was, and continues to be today, to get the troops' attention long enough to impart useful information on maintaining their equipment. Almost everybody likes comic books, so there you go.

Incidentally, I've been a few motor pools in my time where they've collected nearly every issue back to the Vietnam era. If you ever find yourself in one of those, take a look.

[rocktivity]

55. The way things are going, LizW,

they WILL be eleven!

:headbang:
rocknation

[Clark2008]

11. Is the evil character in the training manual called

"Busholmordt?"

[Pithy Cherub]

12. Rummy would be Rattail?

Not sure where the Dementors (Dementoids) play - maybe the mepublicans in congress... :hi:

[SaveAmerica]

14. It's my opinion that she is a hypocrite

I think she borrowed from several of England's famous authors of children's books. When I read the first book out loud to my kids they were constantly saying how parts resembled books we'd read in the past. It's been a while now but the author that comes to mind first is Roald Dahl. The kids have found (as they read the rest on their own) similarities to the Narnia series, Travers' Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the Lord of the Rings, etc. I think it's ironic that she's tried to keep such a tight hold on her characters/books. Maybe she's afraid they'll do unto her as she's done unto others.

[jdj]

15. it's too close.

over here they would find in her favor.

the only way you can do this legally is it is satire, and this clearly is not satire.

Well, of course it does all depend on who you know, and this is the army, so....

A few years ago a black author wrote a "black" version of Gone With the Wind, called "The Wind Done Gone." She was sued for copyright infringement and lost because the book was serious fiction, and not satire.

[AP]

19. All good literature (and film) borrows from the past, turns

it around, and says something original about the present.

The arguments Rowling makes about class and about inherited privilege are more powerful BECAUSE she is using cultural references with which we're all familiar. (And how does that have anything to do with being a "hypocrite"???)

It's amazing to me that for art that is "high brow" (like, perhaps, The English Patient) which may be highly derivative, unoriginal, and deeply conservative, nobody would call the author a hypocrite.

Yet, with Rowlings, there's this undercurrent (driven, I believe by jealousies in the high-brow set, like AS Byatt) where people really get off on saying that she's a criminal and a hypocrite.

[crispini]

20. It's called "literary allusion" and is

completely different from plagarism. That's one of the most fun parts of reading great literature-- noting who the author pays hommage to and was influenced by. Rowlings is guilty of nothing but having read widely (and having good taste in what she's read).

[AP]

22. The best thing she does is that she takes all these cultural

references and spins them into a NEW narrative about contemporary Britain.

She is saying something different and interesting which is built with the bricks of all those other stories.

[crispini]

25. Exactly. As all the great authors do.

Her stuff is, quite simply, entertaining AND multilayered AND insightful. Wish I could write half as well as she does.

[jdj]

26. not to mention the fact that just about all children's lit. derives from

pagan fairy tales, which are in the public domain and whose authorship has long been forgotten.

[w4rma]

29. This is probably a big mistake for her and WB to make.

They are going to lose money, popularity and advertisement with this. They should just let it go.

[AP]

31. I disagree. I think Rowling is entitled to protection of the...

...product of her labor for the period of copyright protection (so long as that period of time is reasonable).

She worked hard to come up with these characters and stories, and I don't think people should be able to use them without a license.

Once they're in the public domain, have at it. Until then, protect the value of labor.

[Protagoras]

43. I doubt her fight with the US Military

over their feeble attempt to piggyback on her story will matter one iota to the millions of people who read her books. She has nothing to lose by keeping her story out of the hands of incompetent propagandists...and the buzz her fight will recieve in communities like ours will probably gain her a few new readers just from the curiosity.

[HEyHEY]

30. IS the average US solider's age 10 - wtf?

[progressiveright]

32. how many marines does it take to write a letter?

three

one who can read, one who can write, and one to watch over those two dangerous individuals.

[w4rma]

44. Wtf? Not funny. (nt)

[emad]

36. Army mag draws Potter comparisons

BBC

Lawyers for author JK Rowling are investigating a US army magazine cartoon whose characters bear an uncanny resemblance to Harry Potter.
Preventive Maintenance Monthly, which has a circulation of 100,000, teaches soldiers how to care for their kit.

Its cartoon strip includes a boy wizard called Topper and a professor of Mogmart's School called Rumbledore.

A spokesman for Rowling said she has always taken protection of her copyright "very seriously".

But he added: "It's too early to say whether this case is really something to provide us with major concerns."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/4243145.stm

[allemand]

39. Sample

Comic strip from Preventive Maintenance Monthly

[Rapcw]

37. LOL they could have tried just a LITTLE harder in changing the character

names n/t

[MsTryska]

42. so umm....what's this training manual for?

nt

[pocket]

46. Parodies are protected free speech

or else Mad Magazined would have been sued out of existence long ago.

This is a parody.

[trogdor]

51. True.

Usually, the holders of the IP being parodied are honored to be featured in PS. I know I would be - it's a sign that you're "with it", just like being done up in MAD or Saturday Night Live.

[foo_bar]

52. can the government invoke fair use?

(most) anything printed by the US government is considered "public domain", at least according to this site. Does that imply everything the government prints is intrinsically not-for-profit or educational, or would it take an 800 lb gorilla to find out?

[Downtown Hound]

53. If it's satire, it's protected speech.

But it doesn't sound like satire. Either way I sense a big rant from O'Liely and others about how it's time for a boycott of Harry Potter. Yawn.

[rocktivity]

56. Satire or plaigiarism?

They'll have to prove that the the mag was stupid enough to think they could get away with such a blatant ripoff.

Maybe Ms. Rowling needs to be acquainted with the O'Reilly vs Franken case.

:headbang:
rocknation

[daleo]

59. Have they tried this with Disney?

Somehow I doubt manuals with the characters Mackey Mouse, Dinold Duck, and Screeg McDuck would have even been contemplated by the army.

[tralfaz]

60. big freaking deal. n/t