1. I agree, Rowling already has enough money for herself. Would it be that big of a deal for her to jointly publish a lexicon with Vander Ark? Then she could put this whole messy business behind her.

Posted at 2:13PM on Apr 16th 2008 by fadedsilverscreen

2. Ms. Rowling needs to remember her humble background & where she came from as well, if it wasn't for Harry Potter, I believe she'd still be hurting for $$.
If it was a corporation or some bigwig trying to infinge on her trademark then I would be totally on her side............but it's not.

Posted at 2:52PM on Apr 16th 2008 by Aaron

3. It may not be Rowling at all. Her publisher would consider it part of the intellectual property they purchased and would be missing the cuts made from something like that.

It seems to be publisher vs publisher but JK's face gets displayed because she's the author of the world that's being legally battled for.

Posted at 3:14PM on Apr 16th 2008 by Kyle

4. It is. It's Levine Books or Scholastic that are pressing the charges, and it's sad that they're doing it this way. They could have just sent the man a letter telling him not to publish the Lexicon and avoid the lawsuit altogether.

It's the companies that want the money. If you read Jo's website, she states:
"I take no pleasure that the publication has been prevented for the present. On the contrary, I feel massively disappointed that this matter had to come to court at all. Despite repeated requests, the publishers have refused to even countenance making any changes to the book to ensure that it does not infringe my rights."

The Lexicon should had stopped the publishers from doing what they were doing, and this all could have been avoided, but now Vander Ark has to take the blame for his publisher's idiocy.

Posted at 3:31PM on Apr 16th 2008 by LiqwidZero

5. Don't give him too much credit on contract negotiations. If the publisher gets publishing rights, they also bear the burden of litigation. It's essentially a battle of content owners. They are the copyright owners here. Not the writer. Now if this were the music industry (where most content is owned by the writer and not the label), you'd see the labels backing out of the fight because they don't own the content outright, pushing the burden to the writer.

Posted at 3:52PM on Apr 16th 2008 by Mike

6. Just to make sure its clear, this is not Rowling vs. Van der Ark. Its their publishers battling over copyright infringement. Rowling certainly isn't out to "get" anyone here.

Posted at 4:12PM on Apr 16th 2008 by Kevin

7.
Rowling said her issue with this book being printed is not that he's making money off it and she's not getting a slice, it's the fact that there are a multitude of errors and misinformation in the book.

She doesn't want it published because she doesn't think the work is worthy of Harry Potter basically.

I'm with Rowling on this one btw.

Posted at 11:07PM on Apr 16th 2008 by John

8. It's worth noting as well - when JKR had her turn in the stand last week, she clearly stated the proceeds from her Lexicon were destined for charity, in much the same way as Quidditch Through The Ages and Fantastic Beasts were published on behalf of Comic Relief. See http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article3621625.ece

I do feel for the guy, who's put so much into HP over the last few years... but JKR's intent to publish the lexicon has been known for a while. Ultimately the publisher is to blame for trying to beat her to the punch, and it's just very sad that Vander Ark got pulled in.

Posted at 6:45PM on Apr 20th 2008 by Matt Dovey