An Open Letter John Buechler, Steve Vander Ark, JK Rowling, and Warner Brothers.
Dear John, Steve, JK, and WB,
How are you guys?
I hope you’re all feeling well.
I understand that there are currently some tensions between Ms. Rowling and Mr. Vander Ark and Mr. Buechler and Warner Brothers, and I was hoping that I might lend a word or two in the hopes that everyone can reach some sort of compromise.
Now Ms. Rowling, in the declaration that was filed in District court against Mr. Vander Ark you said that you were “very frustrated that a former fan has tried to co-opt my work for financial gain.”
My response to this is fourfold:
1. Take your head out of your ass.
2. I doubt, given the time and effort it would take to compile the HP Lexicon, that the man you are suing would call himself a “former fan.”
3. Exactly how much money do you have? No, that wasn’t a rhetorical question, I really want to know how much you have because I am willing to bet that even if the HP Lexicon were published and sold a million copies, Mr. Vander Ark (the Lexicon’s author) still wouldn’t have 1 tenth of the money you have, so let’s just all admit that he isn’t really taking money out of your already very deep pockets.
4. And finally, please try and understand that what Mr. Vander Ark (and others, who write fan-fiction, for instance) is doing will only help to continue the life of the books/universe you created and, in the long run, will mean that more of your books will sell (to future generations), which will, I’m sure you are aware, equate to you making even more money so…please take your head out of your ass.
My assumption is that this whole lawsuit was really just a way for you and your publishers to force Mr. Vander Ark to cut you in on the profits of the HP Lexicon…which brings me to John Buechler and Warner Brothers.
So Mr. Buechler co-wrote and directed a film called Troll which was released in 1986. An interesting bit of trivia about this movie, the main character is named Harry Potter Jr. Now I’m willing to admit that maybe Ms. Rowling never saw the movie. I mean, it isn’t like Harry and Potter are ridiculously obscure names in the English language, but…there are more similarities between Mr. Buechler’s film and Ms. Rowling’s books.
So you, Warner Brothers, have threatened Mr. Buechler with a lawsuit if he moves along with production on a remake of the film, claiming that you will “protect your rights” or something. Now I’m no legal scholar here, but I don’t exactly understand how you can “protect” the name of a character when that same name occurred in someone’s work a decade before is showed up in the work you now distribute. Unless you have a time machine tucked in the corner of a lot somewhere and you plan to go back to 1985 and stop Buechler from writing his script, I’m not sure exactly how else you can “protect your rights.”
Seriously WB, where the hell are you getting off?
Look, the history of the written word is a history of theft and plagiarism. Shakespeare…fucking Shakespeare…”borrowed” from mythological and historical sources for nearly every one of his plays. Now I’m not calling you a plagiarist, Ms. Rowling, but what I am saying is that you can’t try and pass yourself off as having never read, seen, or heard anything ever. It’s pretty well documented that you “came up with the idea while on a train from Manchester to London” or whatever. But you didn’t live in a vacuum, no one does. So for WB to threaten legal action against Buechler for possibly using a character he wrote 10 years before you wrote a character with the same name just seems to be the most ironic thing I’ve ever heard.
And, of course, you, Ms. Rowling, and WB, have had a fairly large amount of court dates over the years. I totally understand the need to protect a piece of intellectual property like HP. I get it. People want to take a bite out of that shiny apple any way they can. But at a certain point, one stops becoming the victim and starts becoming the victimizer.
So please, Ms. Rowling, for the sake of what’s left of your already money-tainted soul, drop the suit. Warner Brothers, I know it’s hard, being as your a movie studio and all, but try and realize that you are not god, did not invent sliced bread, and stop being such a big pile of dick wagging douche bags. Mr. Buechler, I hope you produce your remake and I hope that the main character is named Harry Potter Jr. And Mr. Vander Ark, I hope you get to release the book that you’ve poured your time and work into.
Love,
Kilian
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April 14th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
*applauds*
April 15th, 2008 at 7:45 am
It’s funny that you repeatedly suggest that Rowling should remove her head from her ass, when your head is so obviously stuck up yours. Try getting the whole story before sending this epistle.
Steve Vander Ark is a man in his fifties who became obsessed with the Harry Potter books and started organizing the characters and information in the books alphabetically, chronologically, and in various charts, all on a website that other fans contributed to, much like Wikipedia (as the defendant is quoted as saying).
Rowling was impressed with the level of his obsession and recognized his site on her own site. He wrote to her several times, offering to help her write and research her own encyclopedia for free. She politely refused his offer. Then he is approached by RDR Books with the suggestion of simply printing out his website and selling it for $24.95 a pop. Rowling’s lawyers sent several cease and desist letters, since the content of the Lexicon is over 90% direct quotes from Rowling’s work and does not constitute as enough original content to be a companion book, something that the defense freely admits. What’s more, there were no quotation marks used, even when large passages were word-for-word, entirely Rowling’s.
In short, repackaging another author’s work to profit off of their success and effort is not the behavior of a fan.
What’s more, Vander Ark was informed, as was the public, that the profits from Rowling’s encyclopedia will be donated to charity, as were the profits from all her other companion novels. Rowling will not be making a cent from her own encyclopedia when she easily could, so why would she be looking to cash in on the Lexicon?
There’s a decent chance that the Troll movie influenced Rowling’s mind, even subconsciously, when creating her novels. And WB should definitely not try to sue Buechler if they do a remake, but that’s not Rowling’s fault. Regardless, there’s a huge difference between the two cases. Rowling took a name and wrote a completely different plot. Vander Ark rearranged exact text and is trying to sell it as a “reference book”. Unfortunately, he did no research or analysis to make it like other companion books, and in fact, the information accumulated in the Lexicon was not solely his work. Countless fans and other major collaboraters put in that time. I don’t think Vander Ark will be emailing back all the fans that helped him to make sure they get a cut of the profits.
This all comes down to RDR Books and Vander Ark trying to make a quick buck. You assume incorrectly.
April 15th, 2008 at 8:53 am
I’ll admit that the two situations are different, though they are occurring at the same time and center (essentially) on the same work and seem connected to me.
Vander Ark may be an obsessed fan, have multiple personalities and live in a trash can. I really could care less about that. What bothers me is that Rowling is essentially saying that it’s copyright infringement when it really isn’t. He may not use quotes or cite properly on the website but I’m willing to bet that would not be the case with the actual book because any publisher/editor worth anything wouldn’t let that happen.
So your point is that, if it had more commentary, then the Lexicon would qualify as a companion book? Where, exactly, is that line drawn? My point is that I don’t think it is copyright infringement because A) Vander Ark isn’t trying to pass it off as a work he wrote, and B) everyone and their mother knows where the source material comes from. The Lexicon does not, and could not, replace the books as a source for the story of Harry Potter because of it’s very nature; an encyclopedic account of the facts of the narrative. No one would read the Lexicon as a stand in for the HP books. The very nature of itself is that it is nothing other then a companion piece, it can’t be anything else.
Maybe Vander Ark does want a quick buck…I mean, I want a quick buck, I just haven’t figured out a way to get it. I won’t argue that. I’m just saying that I think Rowling’s entire “defense” is completely disingenuous. Especially considering that the Lexicon exists online and so just about anyone can already read it.
And if Rowling were serious about donating profits from companion books to charity then why not strike a deal with Vander Ark and RDR to take a percent of the profit and donate that to charity. Then, if she wants, she can write a reference guide of her own and donate that profit to charity as well. I just really don’t understand her motivation in trying to stop this. I really don’t.