JK Rowling: Fans Can't Make Money From Harry Potter
Submitted by DeepThought on Sat, 03/01/2008 - 23:49
The Harry Potter author Joanne Rowling was crying into her huge pile of cash recently when she discovered that a fan was planning to release a Harry Potter Lexicon.
The bastard. Imagine someone going out and chronicling the Harry Potter legend for the benefit of the fans, and saving Rowling the bother.
Now, there's two ways of looking at this:
- Joanne Rowling is a complete control freak and wants to write the encyclopedia herself. Fair enough. Or...
- She's slightly more preoccupied about someone else making money out of her creation.
What you might not know is that the proposed Harry Potter Lexicon is based on a website which Rowling herself has praised. Let's face it, fan sites help spread the word and allow enthusiasts to gather together and gossip and explode the myth.
I'll say it again. Rowling actually approved of this website. But she doesn't approve of them putting together a book which celebrates her bumbling boy wizard and his school chums. And suddenly there's a lot of talk from her camp (read: lawyers) about having to clamp down on these nasty fans trying to capitalise on the Potter series. Those shits.
Obsessive Or Stupid?
I wonder. You're Joanne Rowling. You own the rights to Harry Potter. Someone's gone out and written a book about your scar-headed schoolboy.
Now, do you get your legal eagles to stop them publishing their book, then go out and spend months writing your own? No. The smart businesswoman would strike a deal to get her fair dues from the book, and also to insist on some kind of editorial approval.
If I'd written Harry Potter, I'd want some rights over the material and any derivative works. But if someone's already gone out and written an encyclopedia and needs approval before publishing it, then I'd ask them for a decent cut and take a holiday with the proceeds.
With all those book, movie and presumably merchandising rights, I'd imagine Ms Rowling isn't exactly strapped for cash. She probably wipes her ass with spare £5 notes. Part of me wonders where she's going with this idea. Does she want to shut down all the fansites? Does she want to stop other people profiting from Potter?
My Opinion? She needs to go and talk to these people and strike a deal that protects her brand and formally endorses the Harry Potter Lexicon. Stop talking crap about dealing with the fansites and get back to creating stories that people will wait for years to read. Like we did with the Potter novels.
Old news/incomplete news
I'm curious why you are posting on this now. This was back in the fall of 2007. I don't see her talking crap at all about fansites. She's always been a huge supporter of the fan sites.
The main issue lies in the fact that she had announced back when book 7 came out that she would be writing a lexicon, and, seeing as how that universe is her intellectual copywrited-protected property, she has say whether or not it is ok for someone else to publish one before she has a chance to.
It really boils down to an issue of keeping others from stealing ideas that are rightfully yours.
I'm reporting on it now
I'm reporting on it now because it's become newsworthy again recently. Take a look at the date on the article I linked to.
And I appreciate that Jo Rowling has intellectual property rights over Harry Potter, but she has encouraged some of these fansites - because the gossip and rumor that they published helped to drive hype and sell her books. She was happy to do this as long as they weren't earning serious money from the franchise.
The possibility of someone releasing an encyclopedia without her consent seems to be the problem. I'm merely suggesting that she might be better working with them since they seem to have done a lot of the legwork already.
Plus, surely even a book like this keeps the Potter series in people's minds. Bear in mind that without another book to look forward to, it's just the movies from here. Fans are likely to buy the 'unofficial' and official versions alike. I just think it's a pretty stupid move.
Cooperate
I'm not saying that Rowling persuing legal action is stupid, but a more harshly defensive move than might have been expected or wanted. Her claims that this lexicon may wreak havoc on the author-fan relationship sound to me like panicked statements, as if she fears that now because one fan has dared to try and pitch in all of us are going to be scrambling onto the bandwagon and trample her to death.
I agree that working in cooperation with the author of the lexicon would be a smarter move, and repair the damage she might have done to her fanbase by reacting in such a sharp manner. After reading up on this I was very disappointed in Rowling's response.
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