camilla
2007-11-15 04:12 am UTC (link)

My totally biased summary:

Steve Vander Ark is JKR's man.
Steve Vander Ark has a midlife crisis.
Thinks all his FAN work should pay off in $$$.

And here is where our troubles begin.

Steve Vander Ark finds shady publisher, goes ahead with his very sekkrit project, trying to stay under JKR's representatives radar in spite of claiming innocence.

Contacts prospective contributers without giving them specifics.

Fastforward: Shit hits Warner Brothers and so on's fans. JKR's representatives say NO.
Steve says, BUT!
Representatives: NO.
Steve: But when a woman (and her representatives) say no it actually means yes, everyone knows that. SHE LOVES ME!
Representatives: NO.
Steve: Lalala.

Steve's publisher then comes out from under a rock and says stopping the publishing of the Lexicon is like:
- Radiotion sickness.
- Depriving starving children in poor countries of education.
- David vs Voldemort.

Fandom lols.

Random internet lolyers who have no idea what this is about claim Steve may have something thar and that rich women suck, everyone knows that.

And it's not over yet.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

	camilla 2007-11-15 04:13 am UTC (link)
	Radiation, you get the idea. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	lavenderfrost 2007-11-15 04:16 am UTC (link)
	Steve? Middle-aged man who's clueless about fandom, I take it? No smart, self-respecting ~~NON-CRAZY~~ fangirl would try to make a profit from fanworks, after all. ^^;; (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

camilla
2007-11-15 04:20 am UTC (link)

I think the trouble started when he got his own groupies and started suffering from cock-in-the-henhouse syndrome at conventions. It has ruined better men.

You should have a look at the footage linked to in Cleo's post, on youtube. He's going on about how the Potterverse is the fans' now that canon is finished, and everyone's cheering him on. He might have had a point there, but now it's all lost in the hunt for profit.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	kerryblaze 2007-11-15 04:28 pm UTC (link)
	I think the trouble started when he got his own groupies and started suffering from cock-in-the-henhouse syndrome at conventions. It has ruined better men. Yep. That's it in a nutshell. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	cleolinda 2007-11-15 05:47 am UTC (link)
	Not clueless, actually--very deep in fandom. Which may be more the problem. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	lavenderfrost 2007-11-15 06:06 am UTC (link)
	...so he's one of the Crazies. Gotcha. puts on wading boots & construction helmet (Reply to this)(Parent)

	fuzzytowers 2007-11-15 09:40 pm UTC (link)
	I kinda liked Radiotion sickness. It sounded more appropriate somehow. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	camilla 2007-11-15 11:24 pm UTC (link)
	That's right! It wasn't a typo, it was a pun! (Reply to this)(Parent)

	sorchar 2007-11-15 06:09 am UTC (link)
	I don't know. I just know I don't want to go on Big Gay Dalek's Big Gay Spaceship Ride. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	lavenderfrost 2007-11-15 06:32 am UTC (link)
	But...but....Big Gay Dalek loves you! (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	sorchar 2007-11-15 07:10 am UTC (link)
	Big Gay Dalek is just luring me into a false sense of security in order to exterminate me. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	puipui 2007-11-15 10:26 pm UTC (link)
	He's the only Dalek that says "EXTERMINATE!" with a lisp. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	sorchar 2007-11-15 10:28 pm UTC (link)
	Now, that's just prejudiced, Pui. I'd expected better from you. Phbbt. On the other hand, he's the only Dalek who can out-gay John Barrowman. /random Never Mind the Buzzcocks reference (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	puipui 2007-11-15 10:31 pm UTC (link)
	I suppose you don't want to hear my limp plunger joke, then? Actually, that's probably good, since I can't actually think of any good limp plunger jokes at the moment. Sigh. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	sorchar 2007-11-15 10:35 pm UTC (link)
	Viagra - it's not just for humans anymore! (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	puipui 2007-11-15 10:46 pm UTC (link)
	He should do commericals! "ARE YOU WOR-RIED A-BOUT E-REC-TILE DYS-FUNC-TION?" (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	sorchar 2007-11-15 10:53 pm UTC (link)
	DAL-EKS HAVE NO CON-CEPT OF IM-PO-TENCE BUT IF YOU DO, VI-AG-RA WILL IN-VIG-OR-ATE! YOUR LOVE LIFE. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	puipui 2007-11-15 11:32 pm UTC (link)
	VI-AG-RA IS NOT IN-TEND-ED AS A SEX-U-AL STIM-U-LANT! SIDE EF-FECTS MAY IN-CLUDE HEAD-ACHE, AB-NOR-MAL VI-SION AND IN-A-BIL-I-TY TO CON-QUER THE U-NI-VERSE! TALK TO YOUR DOC-TOR (BUT NOT THE DOC-TOR) BEFORE TA-KING VI-AG-RA! (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	sorchar 2007-11-15 11:57 pm UTC (link)
	VI-VA VI-AG-RA (Reply to this)(Parent)

janegraddell
2007-11-15 06:22 am UTC (link)

Back in September, Rowling and/or Warner Brothers found out that Steve Van der Ark was planning to publish a book version of the Harry Potter Lexicon. They requested to see a copy of the proposed book. Steve's publishers, RDR Books, didn't respond. JKR/WB sent a Cease and Desist letter. Steve said, "You need to talk to my publishers." RDR said, "We've just had a death in the family, give us time." JKR/WB said, "Sure, no problem." A couple of weeks later, they realized that RDR had used said time off to continue merrily along with their publishing plans, including selling the German rights to the book. By now, it's late October, and the publishing date of the book, November 5th, is growing close. JKR/WB gave RDR until the 29th of October, then filed their complaint on October 31st.

Skipping the intervening legal back-and-forth, the upshot is that at present, RDR Books has been ordered to cease all production on the book until January, when they and JKR/WB will begin the official legal slug-fest. This injunction includes advertising the book and offering it for sale (which as of today they were still doing). They have also, apparently, finally obtained the services of an actual lawyer. He's the cousin of the owner and apparently knows nothing about intellectual property law, but he is a lawyer.

That's the bare bones. The real fun in this business has mostly come from the increasingly bizarre behavior of RDR Books. Their first notable comment was when they told JKR/WB that if they wanted to see a copy of the book, they should get someone in their office to show them how to print the web page. As soon as JKR/WB went to an actual court, RDR began to claim all kinds of things, not least that Warner Brothers had, in fact, infringed on Steve's/The Lexicon's copyright by using his timeline on the Chamber of Secrets DVD, and that they were suing RDR as a preemptive strike against Steve suing them ~~four years later~~ over the timeline. They also likened JKR/WB suing them to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and set themselves up as the underdog in a David vs. Voldemort-esque struggle (no, really, I can't make this stuff up).

For a lot of fans, the truly problematic issue is that the basis of RDR's defense, as near as we can figure, is that because JKR praised the HP Lexicon and admitted to using it once, she thereby waived her copyright and opened the door for Steve and RDR to sell a printed for-profit version. If this argument were somehow to succeed, it doesn't take a lot of imagination to speculate about what will happen next: If a writer can waive her copyright by openly permitting a not-for-profit fan site to exist, then I'd think that any writer with two brain cells to rub together would immediately set about making sure that said web sites were permitted no longer.

Another issue is that some fans are confused/angry/bitter/frothing about why JKR would seemingly allow many other fanworks to be published for profit, and then arbitrarily (it seems to them) draw the line at the Lexicon. According to JKR, she has never had a problem with books that offer commentary or critcism about her work, but she draws the line at books that don't have substantial original content, that instead simply regurgitate her own work. This seems to be borne out by the fact that she has sent Cease and Desist letters to other proposed publications, and in the other cases the publishers either abandoned the project (as Mugglenet apparently did with their encyclopedia) or revised the book according to JKR/WB's wishes. Another problem with the Lexicon, according to JKR, is that she feels it will compete directly with her own proposed encyclopedia (again, this seems to be in line with her actions regarding the Mugglenet encyclopedia).

One thing that should probably be noted about the whole fiasco is that Steve himself has been pretty quiet. He's twice posted "I'm a nice guy, really, don't hate me" letters to the Lexicon, but hasn't otherwise commented about the specifics of the suit, or even, really, given any sort of detailed account of his own involvement. Unlike his publishers, he seems to have decided that the best thing to do is STFU. Which, given his past statements, (mentioned above) is probably a good idea.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

	caffeine_fairy 2007-11-15 12:41 pm UTC (link)
	Blimey, I understood all that. Well done. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	stella_polaris 2007-11-15 03:09 pm UTC (link)
	I've been following this whole charade, and that is a very spectacular summary. The fans who think Steve is in the right here should be forced to read this. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	naienko 2007-11-16 02:40 pm UTC (link)
	And then, a week after fw picked it up, several geeky news sources found the kerfuffle and all seem to be taking RDR's side -- "oh noes stop tramplin' on teh little mans! how dare you try to stop us from making money on commentary!" (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	janegraddell 2007-11-16 09:31 pm UTC (link)
	And alas, this was so. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	sashenka 2007-11-15 07:14 am UTC (link)
	Your icon is fabulous. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	lavenderfrost 2007-11-15 04:18 pm UTC (link)
	Thankies! XD (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	pastri_archy 2007-11-15 05:48 pm UTC (link)
	That's a nice one too. Oooh. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	idiom 2007-11-15 10:00 am UTC (link)
	Icon love! And you're not the only one feeling overwhelmed and I've had internet access since it all started (just very limited time). I'm a bit dizzy by it all. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	lavenderfrost 2007-11-15 04:19 pm UTC (link)
	Big Gay Dalek loves you right back! XD (Reply to this)(Parent)