Copyright This!

Copyright laws are put in place to help the creator protect their work. I could not agree more with that aspect. Well the article I selected this week was about a Harry Potter superfan site. Many may not know what superfan sites are but I’ll fill you in. Superfan sites are internet sites that are created by a so called superfan who loves any and everything about the work the site is based on. Now this definition is just my opinion and they may be a true meaning out there but to me this is the jest of it.
Some may find that some of the sites may be down right creepy. How could someone like something so much that they have to go to every event, movie, and any other activity that is available. To me that’s just insane. I know there are a few things I like or even love a lot but I do not take it that far. Again that is just my opinion. Ok back to the article; Vander Ark is the creator of the Harry Potter superfan site. He has appeared on NBC’s “Today” show and was even included on the special feature portion of “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” DVD.
The issue that Vander is up against is the release of his book called “The Lexicon”. “The Lexicon” if I am not mistaking is an encyclopedia of “Harry Potter” facts, terms, and information. All the information included in this book is the same that could be found on his site. J.K. Rowling even said that she visited the site and even used the encyclopedia as a reference. What is the big issue you may ask? Well the problem is when the information was listed on his site it was free but now since he wants to make it into a book he will make a profit.
As a writer I can understand where J.K. Rowling is coming from with this lawsuit. She states that there is nothing wrong with this book it just includes too much of her material to make it his own. On a side note Rowling’s lawyers stated that the release of this book would interfere with the future release of Rowling’s “Harry Potter” encyclopedia. Now I do not know if she had plan to release a book like this or not but it just drives me up the wall when I see comments like that being made by lawyers.
There was another case like this a while ago that had the comic book creator Marvel sue the creators of the game “City of Hero’s”. Marvel’s whole argument was they were going to create the same type of game and the sad part is Marvel did not get upset until they saw this game was a success. So this is how it works I think of something and then a big corporation sees my item make money then they sue me because they were going to do it first. We live in a sad country if a judge would allow this to happen and in most cases it does.

Article URL: http://entertainment.msn.com/movies/article.aspx?news=310249