Entry tags:

entitlement, fandom: harry potter, internet lawyers, person: jkr, this is the wank that never ends

Lexicon trial, day 2
From what I've heard SVA will testify today. Keep in mind, also--I can't remember which blogger said it, but apparently Judge Patterson looks and sounds a lot like John Huston, which adds an extra layer of awesome to the whole thing.

To start the morning off: TLC comment wank; the Hollywood Reporter weighs in; Y ALOHA THAR!

More as it comes. Watch This Page for update alerts.

Quick ETA: From rosina_alcona: The Guardian's The strange case of Harry Potter and the battle of US district court 24A. From an anonymouse: The Telegraph's
less sympathetic article.

Also, diane_duane brings us the Lexicon news widget.

ETA 2: Holy hell, you guys. The morning update was the last time I was at a computer, so I am DROWNING now. Here's what I was able to pull together in about an hour:

From reddiej: USAToday covers SVA's testimony. "A Harry Potter fan who sought to publish an encyclopedic guide to the wildly popular fantasy novels broke down and cried on the witness stand Tuesday as he faced off in court against his idol J.K. Rowling.... He said he was talked into doing it by the publishing company." (FW thread)

From an anonymouse: "Via the comments on TLC, according to the Law Blog at wsj.com, they stuck Jo right in front of the witness stand during Steve's testimony." (FW thread)

Cendali tried to elicit a sense of the copyright knowledge that Vander Ark, a longtime librarian, might have, and that perhaps he knew ahead of time that RDR planned to infringe Rowling’s copyright. Cendali showed an e-mail from Vander Ark to the host of another Potter fan site. Vander Ark, apparently disillusioned with the deal he struck with RDR in August, wrote: “I am more than willing to dissociate myself with RDR. They have lied to me, misled me, taken advantage of me and in the end ruined my good standing with fans and with Rowling.”

Well, if nothing else, I'll be interested to see if people treat SVA's tears differently from JKR's.

From an anonymouse: More SVA testimony. "He defended not using quotation marks and not listing Rowling as an author. 'It's a reference book,' he said. 'If I was writing a reference book to Shakespeare, I wouldn't list Shakespeare.' " (FW thread)

The Leaky Cauldron updates as well. Meanwhile, Melissa has now recused herself:

I will no longer be posting news updates; I have recused myself from this case from the moment the e-mail in question was mentioned, as it was mine. I have made no news posts since discovering it would potentially be used and took no notes from the moment it was. Kristin will be handling news posts from here on out.

The email is question is from January, and was read out loud after Mr. Vander Ark said he did not feel RDR had lied to or misled him.

From kuromitsu: Another WB/JKR statement. Via Leaky Lounge: Video of JKR's statement yesterday.

(Also, via hinoema from the same thread: Should the Lexicon really be up for sale right now...?

From ari_o: Another legal writeup from praetorianguard. (FW thread)

Hammer’s cross-examination of JKR was fishing at best. He asked far too many questions that he didn’t know the answer to, and he didn’t have back-up in case she gave an answer he didn’t like. Fishing – asking questions when you don’t know the answer, but you hope that you’ll get the answer you want – is always dangerous, but particularly when you’re examining witnesses you haven’t prepared. Direct examinations, that is, lawyers asking questions of their own witnesses, is supposed to go well; you have the time and opportunity to essentially script the performance. Cross-examining, or asking questions of the other side’s witnesses that you haven’t had a chance to talk to ahead of time, has the opportunity to go really well or really badly.

[...]

By contrast, Cendali’s cross-examination of RDR President Roger Rapoport was a beautiful bit of legal work. She would ask him a question, usually if he did something like e-mailing foreign publishers while he told WB that he was in mourning, he’d say he “didn’t remember”, and she’d pick up an e-mail that showed that he did exactly that.

Via Leaky Lounge: legionseagle has a writeup as well.

From alexielnet: Epic fail in the TLC comments. I believe the same poster then shows up here.

... And now I have 582 comments to get through. *sob*

ETA 3: WSJ Law Blog: Judge in Potter Trial Calls on Parties to Settle. Again, you may want to imagine John Huston saying this:

Judge Patterson removed his glasses and addressed the court. “I’m concerned that this case is more lawyer-driven than it is client-driven,” he lamented. “The fair use people are on one side, and a large company is on the other side. . . . The parties ought to see if there’s not a way to work this out, because there are strong issues in this case and it could come out one way or the other. The fair use doctrine is not clear.”

“I’m bringing it up now so you can think about it before you get into the rest of the case,” Judge Patterson added. “Maybe it’s too late; maybe we’ve gone too far down the road. But a settlement is better than a lawsuit.”

The plea came as plaintiffs counsel Marvin Putnam of O’Melveny was cross examining a witness, an exchange that seemed to leave the lawyer frustrated and losing patience. The Judge broke in to point out that it was four o’clock, and asked Putnam how much longer he needed. Putnam apologized, and said he’d need quite a bit longer.

From luthe: Did JKR craft the Pie Chart of Doom herself? "She talked about a chart she had made with her daughter, Jessica, at her dining room table in her home, comparing the Lexicon book to her text; no one asked her to make the chart, she said, but 'I felt extremely strongly.' " Well, it does explain why "flints" are on there, because I can't imagine the lawyers would have known what those were.  spacelogic: "My sister's comment on that: 'Yep, she's Hermione, all right!' " ETA: Apparently JKR made a different chart. Aww.

ms_treesap brings us the Littlest Rickroll.

Latest:

ETA 4: More color commentary from jkrtrialblog on SVA's testimony:

Though I do not support Vander Ark, nor do I care for the lawyers defending RDR, the entire courtroom couldn’t help but laugh when Vander Ark said, “this is exciting,” regarding Alohamora’s origin. The lawyer, obviously beyond unenthused, said, “I’m thrilled myself.”

[...]

When asked if he would not be working RDR following the Lexicon book because he felt he was being misled, he adamantly denied such an allegation. Rowling’s lawyer then brought in a new piece of evidence. She distributed to the judge, Vander Ark, and RDR’s lawyers, a copy of an email sent by Mr. Vander Ark to Melissa Anelli. He stated in the email that he felt RDR had lied to and misled him and that they ruined his standing with fans and JKR and that was why he wouldn’t work with them anymore. The still silence following this piece of evidence leaves me with the conclusion that it’s very possible that RDR did not know that Vander Ark was saying such things behind their back.

As part of evidence, a video clip from a Harry Potter conference that took place in Toronto in August of 2007 was shown. It was about 15 seconds long and showed a bit of Vander Ark’s presentation. From his speech, we heard him say, “Jo quit. We’re taking over now.” [...] Aside from that, the judge was not happy to learn that this brief clip and short excerpt of his speech was the only part of the video brought into evidence. Vander Ark, who should have kept his mouth shut, joked that most of the rest of his presentation could be found on YouTube.

Quick ETA 5: From ari_o: The NYT has a crush on SVA.