me too

Yes, they did mean Indians from the country of India... I actually live in Kolkata, where this festival is held... this festival is just a fun thing...i know that they do not make any money off this...so i think it is kinda unfair that they are being sued... though I am a huge, huge harry potter fan...i feel this is unfair... the castle will be taken down after the festival is over anyways... which is like in a week from october the 17th

okay i like u jo, but i think this is a little overboard.......good luck on the lawsue

okay i like u jo, but i think this is a little overboard.......good luck on the lawsue

Wow, this just seems soo.... so.... un-jo-ish. I love her to death, but really! I disagree with her on this. I mean, people do this kind of stuff all the time! I've made plenty of Harry models in art class.... this is ridiculous. ITs something I could see WB doing, but not Jo. I mean, she doesn't really care about the money, she has enough of that, and why would she want to squish people's fun? I just dont get it.

Even though I love Jo this is a little crazy. I use Harry Potter objects for projects on my favourite things and no one has sued me ,yet. (goes and hides with fear)

JK, you are my hero. I want to be as amazing as you someday. Now, maybe we're too young to understand why you feel the need to sue an Indian tribe for having a themed festival, but it seems rather ridiculous to me at the moment. Maybe some day we'll understand. maybe not.

That paper castle is not some "little" replica people!!!! Its huge. as tall as a building. and its for a huge festival.bigger than HP ofcourse, so they dont need some HP theme to bring people there and make profit. Its a religious festival and nothing is being sold there.People just come there to have a look at there goddess.thats it.and if the theme is very good then its a bonus. The only thing i can see here is they can win prizes for there theme. But if this is what worrying JO then i am sorry to say ,but Jo let me down here.

Wow. So I should get sued for my art project from last year. We had to "redesign the caryatids" and I did mine of Harry, Ron and Hermione. It's just so ridiculous...

**i wasnt aware that it was Indian as in India. but still. suing is overrated.

it is a sad day indeed when people say "indian" they think "america" rather than "india". i believe the correct term for native americans is "nice people whom we tortured, killed, and stole land from". nice ring to it, eh?

A lot of you have been saying that this is uncharacteristic of Jo, but think of all the security that she demands for the release of each book. Other authors simply deal with leaks and such, but Jo puts out embargos and demands that people return copies accidentally recieved early. I know it's all in the name of not spoiling people's fun, but it does show a somewhat overly-controlling attitude . . .

um....what the hell? sorry, but that is too overboard. it's just a paper mache replica. No need to go crazy.

This just doesnt make sense, i mean the people suing are filthy rich already and the people being sued in my opinion didnt do anything but admire her novel.

Ginevreweasly, about the "Indian" issue -- don't forget that there was fighting and torture on both sides of the issue. While colonists surely treated the Native Americans horribly, it was not entirely unreciprocated violence. Just a little OT note!

Omg that really sucks. I would be so mad if someone sued me over my paper mache castle. I think I want to go make one now. It was just for a festival, (prob Halloween)....geesh. And it probably looked pretty darn friggen awesome too. Bye. I'm going to the beach to make a sand-castle of Hogwarts, better hope they don't sue me...

i've drawn reproductions of all the book covers already and my own gryffindor banners and everything else....if thats illegal then this is soo stupid, if they win that means you can sue for anything. its not like it was claiming rights to the hogwarts castle. they shud start suing people who do fan art now!! not.

Indian will always mean a person from India. Columbus just had no sense of direction. Native American's never referred to themselves as Indians. Well, they never referred to themselves as Native Americans either, but that makes more sense than Indian. I find it really sad that people are so unenlightened that Indian equals America in their head.

NO!!! JO, DON'T GO TO THE DARK SIDE!!!!!!! THIS IS WRONG!!!!

Well, the "group" must've been charging money for harry potter themed things or actually infringing upon copyrights...otherwise there'd be no case. but i think it's funny that the guy said that he modeled the titanic and no one sued them......umm.....dude... .....it's a boat, not a franchise, haha.

I think thats a little overboard, but I can see how they could get suspicious, considering many of Harry Potter copyright issues have come out of India....no offense though....

they still call native americans indians in the us, because people are ignorant and stupid. columbus was an idiot...and a cruel twisted manipulated fellow who used the natives then enslaved them....

h_boo: Wanna try actually reading the comments? They ARE NOT making money off the model. It is displayed in a religious festival for free. Xennas- As an Indian I'm not offended. A lot of copyright stuff has happenend in India. But this? This was perfectly harmless and no money was being made. It was actually pretty cool! I think its really pathetic that they're going to sue for this.

i agree...very pathetic and stupid and senseless. its basicallt just fan art as decoration...why do they have their own life size paper mache hogwarts castles that they are selling and losing profit on? i think not. dummmb

Wow... whats with the over acting? It's not like gonna be a peredent thing is it? Its only for a few days so whats the big deal...making a mountian out of a mole hill if you ask me!

Oh come on! it's not as if they were going to try to make everyone believe that a paper mache replica is the real Hogwarts! it's just for a festival! Jo, I love you and Harry Potter and everything... but isn't this a BIT much?

hi remi!!!!! did u get 2 watch bones yet????????????????????

thats kinda harsh

dang i better take down all my fanart (dont want to lose all my money - a whole $1.37- or they could take my school books cuz i really really dont want them!) but seriously, this is pretty sad. and pathetic. i dont really know anything about indian law, but if they were in america (which they arent! theyre indians not native americans) there wouldnt even be a case.

Arg i wish i could stay on but well 1 im grounded and well 2 its a lightning outside and well im deathly afraid except for before there was a harry potter shaped scar one so i took a pic of it!! but yeah im gonna go hide under my table/fort thing now... oh and yes i did it was so odd the pony things? erg and Booths reaction to it was exactly mine expecially what he said at the end while there in the diner!!

Hopefully Jo will respond to this issue on her website and clear up some of the confusion. If the story is true, I agree 100% with those who say it's too much. She HAS got enough money already, so let people enjoy the replica and take it as a compliment! As for the Columbus/Native Americans/Indians thing, remember that Columbus was a product of his time. There is no basis for calling him "twisted;" he simply did what any other man of his age would have. It does no good to blame Columbus -- blame the thinking of the time instead.

No the model is not permanent. Its going to be displayed for a while, but the hogwarts won't be permanent. Movie companies have a history of being eager to make money. I really hope Jo isn't behind this, because she seems like such a good and smart person. If she is, well I still admire her, but my respect for her is going to drop a little bit.

oka im back!

Jo just lost 95% of her respect from me. Jo always seemed a bit stuck up to me, and I love her books, but I think there might be more behind this. Not that what she did was right, but we should see the whole side of the story. While people are starving and going poor, she's sueing a company for making a paper mache Hogwarts Castle!!!!!! She should use her money on good things, not take it away from other people!!!!

I know I've already commented, but this is really bothering me. I don't know if there's more to the story, but from the information I've been presented with, I can only infer that an innocent community has been sued for decorations for a festival based on a theme only for the purpose of enjoyment. That is really pathetic. I hope this is not true.

ginnypotter719 - yes! someone who agrees. i also question why we have columbus day. my history teacher said "he discovered america sweetie". i said "he discovered the bahamas and thought it was asia. he was an ignorant prick. shouldn't we have an amerigo vespucci day?" i got detention.

huh. That's weird. I really don't see anything wrong with that at all. I mean, maybe if they were selling the things, I could see why they'd get upset, but just making it for the sake of a decoration piece? That's just rediculous. And it's only a castle. Heck, they could lie and say it was just some random castle. Castles are everywhere. It's not even like they made broomsticks saying "Firebolt" on them or anything, which still should not warrant a lawsuit. It's just there for decoration! Point is: everybody just needs to stop sueing everybody and just learn to get along.

Columbus had no sense of direction. But you know what? I'm glad he didn't discover India. He'd have enslaved us and Hinduism might not exist today. But thats not an excuse for what he did to the Native Americans. They lost their land that was theres from birth. I find it so ironic that people came to America to practice religion freely, yet didn't let the Native Americans practice theirs. And yes we should have an Amerigo Vespucci (sp?) day.

ginerva_weasley: LOL! Wow, I admire you for being so brave to stand up for the truth about Columbus. It sucks that you got a detention. But you now have my respect!

There shouldn't be a Columbus Day, you're right, because Columbus didn't have the positive influence that past historians have attributed to him. But nor did he single-handedly bring all evils to America! The tragedy of the Native Americans was the result of many, many people and governments over hundreds of years! If you are really as enlightened on the subject as you say, you wouldn't attribute so much of the tragedy to a man responsible for only a small part of it!

sirius_lee, all I'm saying is that in a way, people would find out about Harry Potter and might get hooked! All I'm saying on the topic.

heress why we get a columbus day. so we get a day off from school. end of story, no questions asked. Seriously. And if your going otrave about how horrible us americans are, at least rave about something we;re doing NOW!! geezus...

Thank you, dragon_queen. You're absolutely right :-)

thats just wrong you can't go around suing everyone who doesn't get permission to use harry potter in their private affairs it would be anarchy!People would be suing each other left an right over this stuff!

hi puplgirl...uhh what's goin on?? anyone here??

Welcome Amelia, it just really bugs me when peopel star acting like humans are this piec of scum from heck.~~~As for the lawsuit, where did they get 30g to make the castle?

i dont get it--why sue this community? why not just ask for a certain percentage of the revenue instead of suing them? and they weren't knowingly breaking the law, i think it is a lot overboard.

Ok AmeliaPeabody- I know it seems like I'm blaming Columbus for everything. I'm not, I'm sorry, I should've made that clear. I'm blaming him for having a horrible sense of direction and thinking America was India, which led to the whole Native Americans being called Indians thing. Dragon_queen- I'm not saying Americans are horrible. I happen to live in America and I love it. I have no idea how you got the idea that I though Americans were horrible. But I do get annoyed at the fact Americans call Native Americans Indians. And actually not everywhere in America gets Columbus Day off.

Whoa. I don't think I’ve ever been yelled at this much. And Dragon_queen4ever, I’d love to rant about something Americans are doing now. Fighting a war that isn't going to end, sacrificing innocent people's lives. I don’t condone having my friend dying alone thousands of miles away from home for Bush. He did this because, as the president’s kid, he never had to go through a war. He doesn’t know what it does to people.

Whoa. I don't think I’ve ever been yelled at this much. And Dragon_queen4ever, I’d love to rant about something Americans are doing now. Fighting a war that isn't going to end, sacrificing innocent people's lives. I don’t condone having my friend dying alone thousands of miles away from home for Bush. He did this because, as the president’s kid, he never had to go through a war. He doesn’t know what it does to people.