Harry Potter has made JK Rowling richer than her wildest dreams – but if you try to make money out of Harry Potter, JK Rowling will crush you in her mighty fist.
Harry Potter fan Steven Vander Ark is slowly coming to realise this, because he's trying to publish a third-party Harry Potter reference book, Harry Potter Lexicon, and JK Rowling is doing her best to sue his balls off about it.
It just goes to show that JK Rowling won't allow any unauthorised Harry Potter merchandise to hit the shops. But, hey, that doesn't mean you have to tell her about that container of shoddy Far-Eastern lead-painted Dobby The House Elf choking aids that we've just had shipped into the country, OK?
You'd have thought that JK Rowling would have had enough of Harry Potter by now. Yes, admittedly the Harry Potter series has bought her global fame, an impossible level of wealth and the adoration of every literate child on the planet.
But, still, having to pretend to be grateful every time a waddling brat hands you a scrap of paper with a shitty crayon drawing of Ron Weasley when all you want to do is pick them up by their hair and throw them down the nearest well must be exhausting.
However, JK Rowling refuses to leave Harry Potter alone. Although the series of Harry Potter books may be over, JK Rowling still has the money from the next two – or maybe three – Harry Potter movies to come, plus whatever pennies she can wring out of the still rubbish-sounding Harry Potter theme park and the hopeless-sounding Harry Potter musical.
And yet, JK Rowling still plans to coin it in some more by cobbling together a Harry Potter encyclopedia that she can flog to the millions of kids who'd buy a dirty AIDS needle if it had the words 'Harry Potter' stamped on them.
Trouble is, it looks like another writer might beat JK Rowling to the punch. And JK Rowling is fuming about it, as the Associated Press reports:
In papers filed for a lawsuit in Manhattan, J.K. Rowling says she feels betrayed by a fan, Steven Vander Ark, for his role in trying to publish an unauthorized reference work, "Harry Potter Lexicon." Ark is editor of a Web site containing a fan-created collection of essays and encyclopedic material on the Potter universe, including lists of spells and potions found in the books, a catalog of magical creatures and a who's who in the wizarding world… "I am deeply troubled by the portrayal of my efforts to protect and preserve the copyrights I have been granted in the Harry Potter books," she wrote in court papers filed Wednesday in a lawsuit.
That's the main problem. In the past JK Rowling has been hugely supportive of the various Harry Potter fan-sites – and often uses them to communicate with her fans – but as soon as one of them tries to collate anything into something that stops JK Rowling from squeezing every last penny she can out of the speccy little wizard, she throws a shit-fit.
So who's right and who's wrong here? Is JK Rowling right to see Harry Potter Lexicon as a shameless cash-in designed to deflate her own pre-announced ideas? Or is Steven Vander Ark right to think that JK Rowling's being a terrible control freak who can't stand seeing other people happy? Or are we right to want to take every Happy Potter book, DVD or piece of merchandise ever made, throw it on a big fire and skip around it sort of like the Nazis did but this is OK because it's about Harry Potter?
Oh, we're right? There's a surprise.
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Harry Snurdley says
Can she be any more full of herself?
Nostromo says
I must admit if the books I had written had made me the wealthiest being in known space already I would find it hard to give a crap at this point. Good on her for still living the dream, I suppose.
MidniteRed says
She’s making buckets of money, let the guy have his book! It will all lead back to her greedy pockets anyway since you have to be into Harry Potter to buy the lexicon.
What a bitch!! Glad I never got into her crap.
Stabby McGee says
If she’s going to do it herself, it’s her perogative to stop someone else from doing a half-arsed job ahead of her. Personally, if I’d written these characters and I heard someone else was going to put together a potentially inaccurate encyclopedia, I’d stamp em out, too.
ibelieveinnargles says
I’m not really sure where i stand with this harry potter lexicon thing, i haven’t really been following it much, but Jo Rowling is NOT a bitch, and she is NOT full of herself. And Harry Potter is NOT crap. so shut you pieholes.
She isn’t trying to squeeze as much money out of harry potter as she can. I heard that the money she gets from the encyclopedia will go to charity anyway.
Nikkicole says
Well Im a fan but… Why cant she make a 8th? Well… I know, but I have no other book I liked better. Im 11 and my whole family read them! Besides my three year old brother. I adored the books, I wanted to make a story what I thought would happen… was no good… But I want to be an author because she was my inspiration! I dont think you guys are giving her a chance! I bet maybe she would like to make another book, but all this CRAP is making everyone the way it is now! Please try to keep your yapps shut!She is a good Author, maybe she will at least make it so she will make another series because their is no other book I would love to read then hers! I dont appericiate how you mock her! She got me starting to read books not actully 50 pages long because I didnt want to waste my time!
Nikkicole says
Its to short and stupid…
John L says
I encourage any one who criticizes her to write a book, create a world, as she has done, while enduring a hellish existence of loss, depression, poverty, loneliness, then watch others take it from her…When she created Harry Potter and the world he lives in, it was very personal. These are her children, even the adults. You see, to understand her, you have to create, as she has done, a world. She has shared Harry Potter. But make no mistake, Harry Potter, and his world, belongs to her. You see, quite literally,JK bled, less than wrote the series…I promise you, had she made less copious amounts of money, her reaction would be the same. Who has the right to take her ideas and profit? Let them create their own story, suffer the toil required, the rejection from publishers, the personal questions of time invested should the project fail, then meet with success, and have bits of their soul stolen…Not a critic among you knows what it means to create something, then have it stolen, or you would not criticize…
killer099 says
i think who ever dosent have a life should fly and every one who wants to critisize should shut up and let her right her books peacfully. idiots