I LAUGHED MY ASS OFF WHEN SHE DID HER FAKE TEARS ON THE NEWS.... ohh the irony, shes as bas an actress as emma watson, i was sooo cracking up... and yeah she sure knows everything, but who cares? she lost my respect with her whole revelation that dumbledores gay... d. is a fictional character, so SOMEHOW it doesnt seem that outta place to think she was trying to cause contreversy, lil idiot :P

Marie_Lee- Yes, Jo's Hard Work. Have you ever written a book? How about 7?

A settlement would be great if Steve could agree not to publish the lexicon. But I'm not sure that's going to happen and I'm still surprised that he has taken it this far if he calls himself a harry potter fan.

LOL real hard work simple plots and repetitive dialog (the whole book is like: Ron: hi harry -----------Harry: cool i hate draco malfoy ---------hermione: im smart and ugly ----------Harry: lets solve mysteries ----------Ron: k ------------hermione: anyone notice my **** grow 2 lbs every movie? --------Ron: holy sht some form of the dark wizard voldemort! --------Harry: dont worry through love i can kill it (wtf?) -----ron: hooray)

....shes not the first person to ever write an effing book, or even 7, jeez, so now that shes written her books, no one else is allowed?? HAVE U EVER WRITTEN A BOOK AND HAD SOME UGLY ASS AUTHOR TELL U THAT "NOO THESE R MY IDEAS, I CALLED THEM!!"

Of course she knows everything about the world of Harry Potter - She did write the books. It's her work. RDR is within their right to create a book and refer to her books. But I thought that the reason for the lawsuit was that they took most of the original material and rearranged it to make a book or encyclopedia out of it. I thought that was what was wrong about it. Not that they wrote a book about it but that they plaguarised (sp?) her work.

roflmfao, i loved that grnds but be careful, jk rowling might sue u, using her characters and.. and... MAKING THEM SAY THINGS!!!

ty marie, dont worry ill be careful, i mean the worst thing that would happen is the hp fandom would lose respect for me! hedwig how do you know she knows everything? shes never said she knows everything, she has said she used the lexicon for reference. she isnt infallible just because you guys follow her like sheep. say it with me now. BAAAAAAAAA

I don't think she should settle at all. She's within every right to protect her material in this case. I've got nothing against Steve Vander Ark (and personally I think he's probably being used a a puppet of RDR Books at this point more than anything), but this encyclopedia, as has been said a thousand times already, is nothing more than a rehash of Rowling's work. He hasn't put any of his own input into it, so if this book goes into publication he's making money completely off of someone else's work, and that isn't right. Also, the judge in the case is citing this doctrine as a reason for her to settle the suit because it's not clear, and that's ludicrous. That doctrine, at least to me, seems very clear. I'm not familiar with US copyright laws as I'm not American, but I am studying law as a minor in university so interpretation of law is easy for me at this point (though, it's not that hard to interpret it anyway), and this doctrine clearly states that an author is able to use "limited use without permission." Basically, this doctrine clears the way for companion books like that of MuggleNet because they used limited use of her work, and the majority of the book were original opinions based on that limited copyrighted material. Vander Ark's book is an entire book of her information alone; that is not limited. Rowling should most definitely proceed with the trial. And for those who are against Jo because she's "greedy," this isn't an issue of money. It's an issue of principle.

haha u said infalliable, ur supposed to be unintelligent grnds, tone it downn... and do u realize ur on a hp fansite?? hows that diffrent from a book?? haha its not except she dont want anyone making money like she did off hp :P she said it through her lawyers, though its not her MAIN concern, she is worried about sales from her YET TO BE WRITTEN encyclopedia dropping cuz ppl would rather buy this one... hows that looking out for her sheep huh?

How could she not know about it if she wrote it? She would have to know the material if she wrote it. Just because someone is a fan of JKR that doesn't mean they think she's without flaw. I am a fan of JKR and i love the HP books.

Stefwalsh, bring youre scroll bar all the way down. now look at the screen. what do you see? an ad. look to youre right. an ad. look up. ad. look left. ad. mugglenet makes money off of hp too, why not sue them?

Marie_Lee and Grindwhatever, I can't believe you call yourselves fans. I don't imagine you've noticed, but it's taken JKR years to write just those seven books.

~sigh~ I love how people here claim to be HP fans and then go on to criticize them in such a harsh fashion. It's one thing to criticize, any good fan will do that. But if the book was repetitive why keep reading it? I don't like the idea of the settlement a lot, but I want this to be over. Van Der Ark should go back to being the fan he was, and Jo should go back to writing her probably phenomenal next book.

lol 7 years? she must be a little retarded, the complete design for all her books is up there and i did it in 7 seconds! Maybe im just really smart! Masked beauty i still like the books, even if they were repetitive. sorry i have a different opinion.

Grnd3lW4Ld - a lot of the money they on mugglenet from advertising make goes to server costs and the costs to travel for events. Jo isn't suing everyone who writes a HP companion novel, just those who take her work WORD for WORD. If you love Steve so much why don't you go to the Lexicon boards!

HAHHAH I GOT A NAME AND U GOT GRINDWHATEVER, ROFL!! and were critisizing, sorry, its how we roll, we think something and we say it, now if ur thinking BAAA, let it out m'dears!!

so what? whats to say most of the money from steves book goes to paper and glue? would it be different then? alright lol someone tell me the line between copyright infringement and not copyrigth infringement, if i quote HP ami gonna get sued? and lol i dont like steve, has a little bitc*, whered you get that?

It just seems your so against Jo winning, which would mean you want him to win. And once Steve sells the book to the publisher, he has no more costs to cover...

u dont have to like steve (which i dont, hes not hawt even gawdd) to realize what a f*** jkr turned out to be.... and grinds, maybe ur really smart... npe, shes just retarted :P

I said most, not all. maybe you should get to know people actually read their posts before arguing? like where in the world did you get i like steve? i dislike steve and jo because they hold their money and attention so dear

plus u dont like them cuz theyre not hawt, u forgot that m'dear :P

I guess that wasn't the best way to put it. I ment it seems like you are against Jo winning, not that you like Steve as a person. I agree that this is an annoying trial; I hope they agree to settle.

Why are you guys judging Jo so harshly? You don't know her personally - just what you see and hear on the news. Hasn't she done good things since becoming famous? Donating to charities and such? Just wondering why you seem to hate her so much. I think she seems like a lovely person.

if donating to charitys makes u a good person, then we all need to reflect on what kind of effed up world we all live in jeez

lol if you dont want to be judged by others you dont write books, she could ave stopped at book 2 and had enough money, its youre choice to be judged by random people. she brings it upon herself. so what? if i kill 15 people then go donate to charity am i alright?i judge her based on what i see, same as anyone.

But what has she done that is so bad? She wrote some very good books and made a lot of money. I don't think she's hurt anyone by doing that.

Marie_Lee - I agree, I know many unpleasant people who donate to charities.

thanks darlin', of course im right and no she just hurt ppl when she tried to be a celebrity, then i cracked my effing rib laughing, i swear i should sue :P

lol never hurt anyone, never done anything bad, how about suing people around the world just for the fact that thy liked her book! theres something bad. lying to all her fans, 2, stereotyping british people...thats just in the last week! want me to go on?

I think Steve should have just gone back the first time it was rejected and done some more research/added more analysis to his "encyclopedia". I hope that they settle and he has to go back and fix it up. It'll show him all the wasted time and extra drama that could have been avoided... if he still really wants to publish after all this.

jo is a posahh!!!! she tricked u fools.... hey wnana see hoo gtes banned first guys? lmao watch alex cry when he reads this!

and plus she hurts my eyes, ud think with that much money u could afford a paper bag... yeah u heard me, bag it :P

Anyone else waiting anxiously for the jkrtrialblog to be updated??

and he wont even reply lol

i think im winning so far guys ^_^ yayy

winning what? no matter what it is i am lol

Grnd3lW4Ld & Marie_Lee I understand that you guys have some sort of unresolved issues or something but take it somewhere other than a comment page.

stefwalsh - you raise one interesting issue - at what point does quoting something become 'too much' to be considered outside the fair use clause? i do think, despite however badly it may have been executed in book form, that what steve has done is an original work and commentary. that it makes such extensive use of the quotations, right now, may be more of a sign of trying to rush something to market vs. doing something more deeply analytical. however, go to his site. look up 'accio' under the spells section. he hasn't literally quoted any part of the book, but does give a history of it's usage in the books (again, paraphrasing the situation it was used, not literally quoting the passage of jkr's writing), as well as some criticism about it's pronunciation. it will be impossible to prove that that passage or entry is plagarism. he's not quoting the book - he's paraphrasing the situation... face it, jkr is trying to lower the boom harshly through this case to effectively seize control of something that is now in the public domain and open to fair commentary. she has to know that lots of people can legally profit off hp - she's bitter, i believe, because steve is going to get a book out first that she may want to do later on. and, probably, because it doesn't meet her standards. she's just wrong on this point...

wow

dear Grnd3lW4Ld, I dont understand your lashing comments on JK. I mean, you're obviously an HP fan, why are you so angry at the woman who created one of your favorite (this i am assuming as your visiting a HP site which usually u only do if you LOVE the book) books. I mean it's clear that their is plagerism going on and didnt JK say that she did contact the publishing company saying that she would be fine w/publishing the lexicon as long as they adhered to her copyrights. she said she asked them to change somethings but they refused. I mean, as a fan dont you think that the guy should've just changed some of it, so as to not go into this whole thing? I just...it's just so sad that you're being mean to your fellow HP fans. Maybe im just getting to emotional, but im pregnant and my husband is in Iraq and all that seems to make me feel NOT depressed is reading Harry Potter (despite just rereading them in circles and rereading over and over again). I just feel like as fans we should unite and be supportive of eachother and of the author who gave us that connection. I hope JK doesn't stop writing b/c of this. I'll be really depressed if she does. I mean I can understand if she decides that she felt her copyrights were being violated and just refuses to put up with it anymore, she could if she wanted she's already got more then enough money to take care of herself and her family. But i think she continues to write not just for herself but for the fans she's accumulated over these years. Please dont give up Jo. late -Billy

This is driving me crazy. All I care about is the Harry Potter books and Jk Rowling. I don't care about laws. My whole life is revolves around books. Can't this case just end, the waiting is driving me crazy.

g_loves: I'm actually not totally sure at what point it becomes 'too much.' I know in Canada, and specifically in my university, photocopying information is restricted (let's say if you're writing a paper) to, I believe, 5 pages, but don't quote me on that. If it's not that, it's something very close to. I don't know the full law on that and what other provisions it makes, but I assume that it prevents people from quoting other people's work only without using any opinion of their own, which is really a backdoor way to plagiarize work (citing the author, even if you use their opinion word for word, halts a charge if plagiarism) and something like this copyright law in Canada prevents that. Assuming that copyright laws are more or less universal, technically what Vander Ark has done is just that. Everything he cites in his work is property of JK Rowling, and even thought he doesn't specifically quote her, the information is hers. Also, paraphrasing is still a form of plagiarism; it doesn't have to be word for word. I would also say that in this case, what constitutes 'too much' is at the discretion of the judge.

I just think both sides have taken this way too far but are both too proud or whatever to admit it, so they just keep getting deeper and deeper into it. That guy from RDR Books (forget his name... he testified yesterday) sounded like a total jerk in the transcripts from his questioning too, I wonder if Steve wanted to give this up a while ago, but he had already sold it to RDR?

Wow...I definitely have mixed feelings on this whole situation. Being a writer myself, I can understand JKR's desire to protect her copyrighted work. But at the same time, I was shocked when the lawsuit was first announced because the media made it sound like Steve Van Der Ark was being sued simply for writing an HP related book, though I see now that the issue is much deeper. I think the question at the end of the day is really whether or not he actually did something creative or basically copied from the books and masked it by changing some things around. I don't know enough details about the case to determine who's being genuine and who's not and, frankly, with finals coming up, I've got bigger things to worry about. But this is definitely and interesting issue that I will continue to follow.

Grnd3LW4Ld: Why not sue MuggleNet for the ads? Well, they make no profit from the ads or from the website. If the ads work here as I've understood them to on other ad-based sites, the money to support server costs never actually reaches the hands of anyone involved with this site; it goes directly to the company that is charging MuggleNet for their webspace from the companies that have ads here. That was why Warner Bros. told Mugglenet to stop selling their shirts. In that instance, MuggleNet used their product (the word Muggle) and in selling the shirts (even if their intentions were to use the money for the site) came into the possession of profit made from Warner Bros. property. Which is exactly the case with Vander Ark's book. Even if the money he would make from his book was put back into his website, he's still coming to possess disposable income.

billy, just because i enjoy a series enough to check up on the news every once in a while doesnt mean i have to like the author. Im not really angry at her at all, i just find it strange she would attempt to deceive the people that are the only reason anyone knows who she is. best wishes to youre husband.

ahhha, i got banned!!! ROFL, no i didnt. :'( but im back and still winning, closer to getting abnned than u ever will be grnds ^_^

this thing is bigger than rdr vs jo and wb. do any of you think emerson hasn't made any money of this site? I'm pretty sure i heard him say on some news show hes done pretty well off this sight. this is a harry potter site so technically this website and any other harry potter site that cashes in off advertisements or what not are capitalizing off jo's work. I don't find anything wrong with that though, because all these harry potter sites are free promotion for jo and warner bros. How many of these wizrd rock bands sell cds based on her work. I say let steve put out the book and make a few dollars. He has helped readers old and new alike fall deeper into the lore of harry potter. He has even helped jo out when she needed a quick fact check, she was quoted as saying she went to the lexicon to do this. the lexicon book will have no effect on jo, her encyclopedia will not sell any less.

Mugglenet makes money off of HP because, of course, putting quality content on a high-bandwidth server is free. (Here's a challenge: write a comment so stupid that nobody will assume you're not joking)