Quote:
Originally Posted by ePossum
I think that in the entire debacle, Rowlings is the player least motivated by financial gain.
Warner Brothers & RDR Books are clearly in it for the money - and I reckon the same goes for Vander Ark. If Vander Ark's motive truly were just adoration of HP & co, he would have sought permission from Rowling before embarking on the project of creating a commercially available lexicon - and the whole scenario would never have arisen. He might be a naive fool, but he is, without doubt, also in it for the money.
On the otherhand, Rowlings investment in the whole thing appears to be predominantly a personal (not financial) desire to maintain control of her creation.
Rowlings has more money (I persume) than anyone posting to this list, and she is certainly backward in her attitudes to e-publishing - but I don't believe she deserves to have invective hurled at her, just because she wants to have some control over a fictional world that she's worked hard to create.
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I think ePossum has perfectly summed up the situation: Warner Bros own the trademark to the characters and names in the books, so they sue the HP lexicon's publisher for all the money they can get (and also to make discourage other people to publish derivative work without permission). If Vander Ark had tried to get permission beforehand, maybe he would have got it, maybe not, but at least he would have avoided this suit. WB are in it for the money, period. Fans who want to publish commercially a lexicon of their favorite books are not in the wrong
per se, but they have to go through the legal loops: seek permission, deal with the rights owners for a percentage of the royalties, etc. If all this goes well,
then they can publish their "approved by the author" lexicon and make money for everybody involved.
Another thing: right now, J. K. Rowlings must be in a very, very uncomfortable situation. A lot of fans are unhappy with her being on the side of WB in the suit, but really, she has no choice. Since she
sold the rights to her creations to WB as part of the movie adaptation deals, she doesn't control her work anymore!
So, this is the problem I see myself with her claims about "controlling" her work and not wanting to be robbed
now by the lexicon publishers. Vander Ark is not the only naive fool, here.