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Originally Posted by HarryT
Personally I think that Ms. Rowling is 100% in the right, here. Using someone else's characters without their permission - what copyright law calls "creating a derived work" - is unquestionably a breach of copyright. I honestly don't see what Mr. Card is objecting to.
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But Lexicon is intended only as a reference book for people who have already paid for their copies of Rowling's books. Even though the book is not scholarly, it certainly falls within the realm of scholarly comment.
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That, in essence, is what he is objecting to, and quite rightly so. IANAL, but as far as I can see, her copyright infringement claims have absolutely no basis in anything approaching reality. Her trademark infringement claims are probably another matter.
The other matter (the whole hypocrisy bit) is that whether it's a commercial publication or a fan guide on the net is of absolutely no relevance when it comes to copyright. As such, she should have sent a C&D to the web site in 2004 or whenever it was she learned of its existence, and not now, especially after having awarded the site before and having gone on public record as finding it useful herself.