This story has been out for a couple of days, but as it hasn't been brought to Fandom Wank yet, I thought I'd write it up. I hope that's okay.

As previously reported, RDR Books stated their intention of appealing the Lexicon verdict.

RDR Books have now withdrawn their appeal.

Lest anyone think that this is the end, however, RDR Books and Steve Vander Ark are going ahead with a "revised" version of the encyclopedia. E! Online quotes "the 50-year-old with free time to spare" as saying:

"We learned a lot at the trial about what was acceptable, what would follow the fair-use guidelines," he said. "That was not clear before. There was no law on the books that made it clear what was acceptable and what wasn't.

"Coming out of the trial, I had a much better idea of what should go into the book."

RDR's Roger Rapoport says that the book contains "a lot more critical commentary, which means more analysis", while the decision "to publish a different book prepared with reference to Judge Patterson's decision" has been welcomed by Neil Blair, a lawyer for Rowling's London-based agent, and also by a spokeman for Warner Bros. (The Associated Press.)

I haven't found any indication of whether J.K. Rowling's and Warner Brothers' lawyers have reviewed the entire content of the new encyclopedia. 10,000 copies are to be printed for a January 12 release.

ETA: Thanks to mariem_1 for some more information.

The Stanford Fair Use Project have commented:( Voldemort hasn't gone away, you know )

SVA supporter rattlesnakeroot celebrates. Includes links to SVA's posts on the Leaky Lounge and other fun.

The report on the HP Lexicon site.

ETA 2: Thanks again to mariem_1 for this.

Via author/illustrator Matthew Holm (Harry Potter Lexicon Dispute Concludes with Worst Book Title Ever) here is a quote from a Publishers Weekly article:

( Here's the snappy title of the revised Lexicon )

ETA 3: From cleolinda: ( There's a tour! )

So did you hear the news? cleolinda's head exploded Er, I mean RDR Books is appealing.

That's right, you heard me: RDR Books has issued a notice of appeal. Wankas can scarcely believe it. I mean, even Trelawney wouldn't have seen this one coming, yuk yuk yuk.

Naturally, it's reported on various blogs, like Slashdot as well as Leaky Cauldron, and the same arguments from before are rehashed.

You can still refer to RDR Books' website for, uh, information as well.

ETA: Recording Industry vs. The People, which had just recently shared an opinion about the Lexicaon fair use decision, revisits the topic. For those of you who wants to know what {The Common Man} has to say about this.

Also, did you know that the www.hp-lexicon.org was recently named one of the nation's top 15 "Great Web Sites" for children last week by the American Library Association? How embattled.

ETA 2: I just did an ETA and forgot to tack this on. "It ain't over til it's over!"

Info/Law says Slashdot commenters are oversimplifying things, and Techdirt says JKR made her case based on emotion rather than law and says the case is damaging her rep.


ETA 3: sheep gives us another judicial document that I really wish were really real.

Also, a post on rattlesnakeroot's journal commemorates the anniversary of the judicial proceedings, casting Lexicongate characters as Harry Potter ones.

ETA 4: From mariem_1:“It was all very hurtful,” says Vander Ark , who is still such a fan himself that he doesn’t blame the multi-millionaire author at all for her actions... Vander Ark says that he now longs to meet Rowling - purely to say how much he regrets upsetting her.

mariem_1 continues to make my life easier by pointing out where an anonymouse took issue with rattlesnakeroot's comments on the case. A summary:

Anonymous:
Is the lack of reading comprehension (whether willful or not, I have no idea) contagious around here?

rattlesnakeroot:
Thanks for the psychoanalysis. It's so kind of you to study us this way.


And in case anyone missed it, I'm not actually Cleo; she retired from Lexicongate and I'm merely Sugitchi's ghostwriter her subpar replacement. cleolinda was last seen dancing with glee.

And, in celebration of cleolinda's contributions to keeping us all on top of the tsunami of this wank, here's a refresher course of the past year in Lexicongate: ( In chronological order... )

As most of you (in fandom, and some who aren't) probably know already, JKR gave £1 Million to the Labour party.

As this included celebrity, politics and Harry Potter, I knew there must be wank somewhere! Oh, internets, you so rarely disappoint. Posted to fandom_wank, because no-one would really care if she wasn't famous and hadn't created Harry Potter.


Bitch! I knew I always hated Harry Potter for a reason

Dogberry: Bloody celebrity socialists, if they are that 'socially aware' they should give all their money to the poor.

Snouter: I never understood the retards who were intrigued by the garbage books she put together. But then again, the Jonas Brothers have also captivated the imagination of today's retards so it is simply folks exploiting the retarded mentality of today's youth.

Datamass: Yeah what is it with the guilty rich who want to force other people to give up all of their money while they only give up a small portion.

I'm beginning to think they are just using socialism as a means to acquire more wealth under the guise of the common good.Essentially they're just playing their bullshit games to get people to give up as much money as they can so they can snatch it up. After all, with money comes power. Those who have the money rule.

Forcing people to "give" at gunpoint is not helping anything.
The greatest of crimes have always been in the name of "the common good", or in the name of helping the poor unfortunate.
So why don't you give up your money to help the poor if you're so concerned for them?
Lead by example, none of this "do as I say not as I do" shit.

( Read more... )

Breaking: Judge rules for Rowling in 'Lexicon' book case.


Note: My understanding is that SVA will not be appealing anything, because SVA is not the one named in the suit. RDR is. No word as to what he'll do.

(Watch That Page for ETAs.)

( Read more... )

ETA 7: JKR's agents want to see SVA's new book, with bonus comment wank at Mugglenet (OH GOD NO PLEASE DON'T BE INFRINGING I CAN'T GO THROUGH THIS AGAIN); Dear Author comment wank, with bonus Nora Roberts; NPR's audio coverage; clearly, Diane Duane is using the Leaky Lounge lawsuit thread for her own nefarious purposes.

ETA 8: And the appeals begin. Also of note: "Rapoport said the legal tangle has boosted business for his company."

Thanks to the mousie on wank_report for bringing this to my attention.

For background-
Apparently, the sixth Harry Potter Movie is being moved to Next summer, instead of this November. Due to the writer’s strike, apparently.

As far as I know, the original notice

( Fandom KaBOOM! )

If I'm not doing this right, just tell me. This is my first write up.

Edit Thanks insanitys_place!
The people at Leaky Lounge are angry enough to go on for 18 pages. And there is now aa facebook group Give me harry potter HBP on November 21st, 2008, or give me DEATH.

Edit the Second
Twilight has now moved it's opening date to November 21st, 2008.

And MTV is trying to stir up controversy .

For years Ginny and Ron fans have been whinging all over the web about the film and promotional treatment of their characters. For a short while at least, it seems they can take a break from whinging while Hermione fans pick up the gauntlet.

Recently a teaser trailer was finally released, and all were joyous! The trailer mainly featured young!Voldie, Dumbledore and Harry, but there were snippets of Ginny and Ron. Alas! There was no Hermione. The insult continued recently when some promos were released, featuring Ron and Harry, but still no Hermione. The final straw came when some pictures of foreign merchandise were released, featuring new pics of Ron and Ginny, but nothing new for Hermione. As well as some trading cards featuring Ron and Harry.

There were some small signs of dissent in the posts linked above, but it never really went anywhere. The Leaky Cauldron was not so lucky, maybe because they didn't link to the old pic of Hermione. There, some of the Hermione fans rage and the Ginny and Ron fans rub it in.

As I can't link direct to comments, I'll copy paste the juiciest from each page, so this will be quite a long report.

( Read more... )



But I'll leave you with my personal favourite!

Who needs to be entertained by the HBP film? Reading all these comments have me rolling on the floor in laughter! Remember, children, they’ve only released the “Teaser” trailer… obviously, teasing releases “the Dark Lord ” in some of you. Wicked.

So True!

Thank you to the Mouse on wank_report for dropping this in my lap.

ETA: More wanksting about the promos, on LJ this time. Thanks peachespig!

Dearest, beloved, Fandom Wank.

I know you were looking forward to great excitement today. Some of you said words to me that indicated you anticipated fiery 'judgement' upon those who remained fresh and dewey white, those you call n00bs.

Anyway, you got today instead.

Stop anticipating things, we'll just break your hearts.

Sincerely,

Sepia P. Magpie, Esq.



PS: Use this post to reflect on how you could be better people. Or just fuck around in the comments.

Meet Argyle the sock.
( Read more... )

Picked up from wank_report, a small wank but it's probably a good sign of the wank to come from the Twilight fandom.

Wank that is crossing the fandoms as The Leaky Cauldron post an article about the upcoming Twilight movie that is starring Robert Pattinson who played Cedric Diggory in the Harry Potter movies. The writer of the article decided to bring up the comparison between the Twilight and Harry Potter series as it has been brought up in the media during the promotion for the Twilight movie. Though there is little to compare between the two besides both being popular fantasy book series with high page counts not aimed at adults, as Twilight is a vampire romance story aimed at teens.

Most of the comments go back and forth over which is the better book and which is complete trash. One of the Twilight fans, Kerrie, seems to have taken on the role of defender of her 'much more mature book series, hehe'. This of course only causes the warring between the fans to grow even more. She enters in on page 7 and has refused to stop posting since with the thread now 22+ pages and that's with deleted comments. Here are some gems from her posts as she explains how Twilight is sooo much better than Harry Potter:

( And lets face it, sexy vampires are just way cooler then wizards, no matter which way you look at it hehe. )

And that's only snippets from the first ten comment pages as she seems to suffer from 'broken record syndrome' and refuses to believe her opinion could be wrong, being the 'mature working 22 year old' she is.

There's also additional wank from angry TLC readers that such a 'long article' was posted on TLC whose only connection to HP is that the movies share an actor sprinkled through out the comments pages.

ETA: Thanks to an update from mechanicaljewel, Kerrie has found Fandom_wank and surprise, surprise, doesn't get the point of f_w at all:

OMFG that article on Fandom_wank was too funny. Utterly hilarious. Pathetic article really. it wasn’t even written well. Oh well, clearly i’m out numbered. I don’t care one little bit. You guys ganged up on me and acted like its a crime to think that something is better then Potter. Its not a crime to like both. Did anyone notice that i tried to change the subject and people still kept insulting me. Very annoying. I have completely lost all respect for HP fans, who clearly refuse to accept that another book series could appeal to someone more. Just to clear the air, I never ever tried to force anyone to like Twilight, I only reccomended it and listed the reaons why i like it. If thats a crime, then take me away to jail hehe.

ETA2: kumquat_of_doom has brought to my attention that there are now sock puppet accusations about Kerrie and the commenters, deidre/daniel/elaine, that have been supporting her and saying the other posters are being too mean to her. Which can be read near the bottom of page 23.

ETA3: We have flounce on page 24, thank you ari_o for that update. But Kerrie is still going on the next page, cause she's just so sick and tired of all those immature HP fans and wants it to just end.

SVA lashes out at TLC's Melissa in the New Yorker; Melissa alleges that the author, Tim Wu, actually put words in her mouth.

(Side note: "Alohomora" has changed on the Lexicon site again.)

ETA: Screencaps of changes to "Alohomora" this month, for the record.

( Read more... )

ETA 6: The briefs have been filed and are online.

Also: Melissa's statement about editing and/or censorship on Leaky Lounge..

Many thanks to the mousie on wank_report for the heads up!

fpb chances upon a HP fic which contains "not only offensive but a genuine instance of hate speech, including evident racist overtones (apparently being "middle eastern" is bad) and a loathsome misrepresentation of historical fact."

He shields his flist from the source of this horror, claiming to not want to generate any more hits to the repulsiveness, only posting an excerpt.
The utterly offensive mote in his eye?

( Cut to shield delicate constitutions... )
ETA Now commemorated with an icon! Cheers sarahkjrsten

ETA DEUX Mon Dieu, We 'ave a parte deux </pepe_le_pew>

EVA Pod 3 - Launching! Congrats to tehrin for the call of Bingo!

Sorry to post again, but this is fairly significant: via Leaky Lounge, full transcripts of all three days of the Lexicon trial. They are from Stanford (whose Fair Use Project is providing RDR's defense), but it's more than we've had before. The discussion of these transcripts at LL is worth reading, by the way.

(Previously on the Thirty Years’ Wank: A metric ton of articles and an interview with SVA. Watch This Page for update alerts.)

ETA: Anne Rice weighs in.

ETA 2 (May 1): Okay, I'm a bit behind on ETA links, but:

insanitys_place: The Lexicon has corrected the "Alohomora" entry with information from JKR's testimony... not that it's credited as such.

Neil Gaiman weighs in again (and again).

waltraute: Orson Scott Card weighs in.

foresthouse: "This article from CNN by "a legal analyst on "American Morning" is new and discusses the law and views from different lawyers (like Tim Wu who was mentioned before). It's well written."

jedi_dwh: "The Hollywood Reporter is still on the case, and doing a pretty good job of keeping things balanced. It appears their law writers actually- GASP- do their homework!"

Ouch: Potter fan a crybaby in court.

So. The trial ended yesterday (on time, somehow). Since full writeups seem to appear on a delay, here's one more entry as a cleanup post and then we'll have some peace and quiet. From what I hear, we've got three to four weeks minimum before we get a ruling.

(Watch This Page for update alerts. Because I will probably cram in as many ETAs as I can rather than break for a new entry.)

( MOAR )

Latest:

ETA 6: A few more articles:

CNN: Potter case raises thorny issues.

Galley Cat: Harry Potter and the Wait for the Verdict.

Booksquare: JK Rowling Is Wrong.

Today: copyright experts testify, from what I've heard, so things should be a bit quieter. Originally the trial was scheduled for three days; I don't know how much longer it's actually going to take. ( MOAR )

Latest:

ETA 8: The Pie Chart of Doom didn't make it in! NOOOOOOOOO.

ETA 9: Via Leaky Lounge: WSJ LB may not have represented Johnson's testimony accurately. Also, WSJers seem to have gotten Cheryl Klein (who did not testify) confused with Suzanne Murphy.

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.

( MOAR )

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: ( SVA testifies )

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.

I haven't caught it yet, but I'm hearing that the Lexicon case is already on Fox News every half hour. A couple of things I held on to over the weekend:

The latest documents on Justia.

'Potter' author seeks to block fan book. "In court Friday, Hammer said Rowling's lawyers did not want Vander Ark in the courtroom while Rowling testifies."

More later. Watch This Page for update alerts.

ETA: ( MOAR )

Latest:

ETA 9: New at Leaky Cauldron: First Day of JKR/WB vs RDR Books Trial, at which Leaky staffer(s?) were in attendance and able to take notes. There are some really interesting points in Rowling's testimony, but I'll only quote from the Rapoport notes since we haven't seen much from his:( Read more... )

On hp_essays, raisin_gal posts an essay about Petunia.

It gets hijacked almost immediately when blackpearl777 gushes about the post: "It really shows, above all else, how 'Harry-centric' the books are, and how little JKR cared about those characters who served a purpose in making Harry look like the hero..." randomness wonders if the books aren't supposed to be about Harry, after all -- and they're off.

randomness points out that the books are from Harry's POV, and blackpearl777 says that's an insult to her intelligence. In the ensuing comments -- after calling randomness hysterical -- blackpearl777 says Actually, it isn't 'JUST' Harry Potter. To you perhaps, but not to me.

For five years of my life I cosplayed Severus Snape and attended conferences, went to quite alot of expense to enjoy my passion about it. I met people from different parts of the world, and I had to put up with quite alot of 'stick' from my family. I dyed my hair black, made my house into a second 'Hogwarts' and lived, breathed and ate Severus Snape, the character.

I identified completely with Snape, and his world and I was utterly devastated when his 'creator' killed him off like a dog, so needlessly, despite his immense knowledge and intelligence.

So, please, do not presume to tell me it's 'JUST' Harry Potter.

I wonder if she ever bartended in the dark?

The Leaky Cauldron publicly separates from the Lexicon.

[W]e do not think a win for J.K. Rowling means tighter controls on fan creativity at all, and are concerned for the opposite, as well as the attempt to misportray the issues of the case as stated in sworn affadavits. So, after a few days of careful and many-sided discussion, we, as a full staff, decided that people who have such a fundamental disconnect in beliefs cannot and should not be partners in name or spirit, and two days ago informed the Lexicon that we are severing our association....

And while Leaky has always owned the hp-lexicon.org domain and paid for the site’s hosting, we’ve promised to transfer the domain to Steve as soon as litigation is complete (a stipulation that would not have been made had ownership not been mentioned in court documents). We will continue to pay for hosting and provide free support until that day.

Note: Compare this statement to the hosting discussion back in December. There's a pretty big discrepancy there, is all I'm saying.

ETA: lidane brings us a small sampling of comment wank. Also, did you know that this is a Fifth Amendment issue?

ETA 2, via cbm and insanitys_place: The defense has requested JKR as a witness.

ETA 3: SVA leaves a comment at the Lexicon site; the Times Online (UK) weighs in with "J. K. Rowling determined to block RDR Books' Harry Potter 'rip-off' "; a discussion of UK law from another site that has admitted to not reading the manuscript; someone is "baffled at how people are so willing to accept the notion that authors own the ideas they publish"; and I really don't even know what's going on here.

ETA 4: More from SVA in a Lexicon thread.

(Something that might be helpful: get ETAs emailed to you from Watch That Page. It's how I keep track of things elsewhere.)

Ah, finally something worth a new post: SVA gives a short interview to BlogHogwarts, a Spanish-language site. The original English version is at Leaky Lounge.

(Previously on the Hundred Years' Wank: ( Read more... )

ETA: New Justia document: "Counsel for Plaintiff hereby advise the Court and opposing counsel that they have elected to proceed with the bench trial and have Your Honor decide this case." I believe the deadline for the defendants requesting a jury trial was March 14.

ETA wtf: Conan O'Brien mentions the case on his show?

Okay, on Friday, a document appeared on Justia that said... well, we weren't entirely sure what it said, or what it was really in response to. The upside of it was that there was going to be an injunction hearing on March 13, but... something about going ahead and squeezing in a trial rather than waiting on a summary judgment that sent both sides into a flurry of trying to figure out how to fly witnesses to New York on six days' notice (JKR is apparently attending another trial--involving paparazzi?--in England on that date already). Fortunately, RDR has an update:

New York Federal District Court Judge Robert Patterson has scheduled a trial for March 24, 25 and 26 in the matter of Warner Bros. Entertainment and J.K. Rowling v. RDR Books. The judge consolidated a previously scheduled preliminary injunction hearing with the trial.

Also:( Read more... )


ETA 8, because I'm just going to keep on trucking on this one entry until something important actually happens:

Via rustybitch: Info/Law, the one blog that gets it, has posted a new analysis. Key passages:

For transformation, let’s dispose quickly of a red herring: RDR/VA’s work - and it’s extensive - in cataloging and assembling information about the Potter world gets zero weight in fair use analysis. Feist makes this clear: "sweat of the brow" copyright is dead - you get no protection for your work because of the effort involved in pulling it together. Rather, the key is the new expression you add - or, here, the new transformative expression. And I don’t think there’s enough of it.

[...]

Is this a good outcome? I think so. Remember that the 4 factors are non-exclusive. I’d argue Judge Patterson should consider an additional factor here: behavior by the copyright owner. Rowling has been supportive - very much so - of the Lexicon as long as it remained on-line and relatively non-commercial. To the degree that free speech concerns arise in this case (as the memo in opposition of the injunction argues, at p. 6), Rowling’s conduct mitigates those worries.... She’s allowing this information to be presented to her fans and the public in general, while trying to minimize financial harm to her works. Copyright is often presented as a balance between incentives to produce and access to that production; here, Rowling’s approach seems to find that balance.... In Potter terms, though, I think this is a triumph for Dumbledore’s Army, and not for the Death Eaters.

From auralan: "RDR Books has set up Media contacts for the Harry Potter Lexicon Case. They're not bothering to make any pretense that this isn't all about getting as much press coverage as possible."

From hooloovoo_too: More conflict-of-interest weirdness.

From insanitys_place: "I was able to dig up the two Lanthorn articles if anyone is interested in them. This one was before the GVSU forum. And here's the follow up article."

From alexielnet: The Lexicongate drinking game.