Harry Potter Story

A publisher has agreed to delay the release of a Harry Potter encyclopaedia after being sued by author JK Rowling.

Publisher Roger Rapoport said the book will not be published until a judge rules on whether it violates Rowling's intellectual property rights.

A judge in New York has issued an order barring completion, distribution, marketing or advance sales of the book until further notice.

Written by Steve Vander Ark, it was scheduled for release on 28 November.

Entitled Harry Potter Lexicon, it is based on material from an internet fan site of the same name.

Mr Rapoport, whose company is based in Michigan, said he had given a copy of the Lexicon to Warner Bros lawyers - who hold the copyright to the Harry Potter books - in the hope that they would read it and decide that it did not violate copyright.

"I think they should drop it. I'm hopeful that they will," he said.

'Massively disappointed'

Rowling's lawsuit, filed on 31 October, sought an injunction blocking publication of the book on the grounds that it would borrow too heavily from her work and spoil plans to eventually publish her own encyclopaedia of Harry Potter's world.

Rowling had supported the Lexicon website, but she and Warner Bros said they saw a difference between fans publishing information for free on the internet, and selling it in the form of a book.

Rowling said she took "no pleasure" in preventing the Lexicon's publication.

"On the contrary, I feel massively disappointed that this matter had to come to court at all," she said.

"Given my past good relations with the Lexicon fan site, I can only feel sad and disillusioned that this is where we have ended up."

Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Labels: Autor, Book, English, News

Posted by Admin at 5:07 AM | Permalink | Comments

LONDON - J.K. Rowling has completed her first book not to feature teen wizard Harry Potter an illustrated collection of magical fairy stories titled "The Tales of Beedle the Bard."

Only seven copies of the book are being printed, Rowling said Thursday. One will be auctioned next month to raise money for a children's charity, while the others have been given away as gifts.

Rowling drew the illustrations herself and provided the handwriting for the five stories that make up the collection of fairytales.

"The Tales of Beedle the Bard" is mentioned in the final Potter book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," as a gift left by headmaster Albus Dumbledore to Harry's friend Hermione, and provides clues that help destroy evil Lord Voldemort.

"'The Tales of Beedle the Bard' is really a distillation of the themes found in the Harry Potter books, and writing it has been the most wonderful way to say goodbye to a world I have loved and lived in for 17 years," Rowling said in a statement.

The volume, bound in brown morocco leather and mounted with silver and semiprecious stones, will be auctioned at Sotheby's on Dec. 13 with a starting price of $62,000. Proceeds will go to The Children's Voice, a charity that helps vulnerable children across Europe.

"Deathly Hallows," the seventh and final installment in Harry's adventures, was published in July. The seven books have sold nearly 400 million copies and have been translated into 64 languages.

Rowling told the British Broadcasting Corp. that the book of fairytales had helped her say goodbye to Harry's world.

"It's not about Harry, Ron and Hermione, but it comes from that world," she told BBC radio in an interview broadcast Thursday. "So it's been therapeutic in a way."

Rowling said she was working on a new book, "a half-finished book for children that I think will probably be the next thing I publish."

On Wednesday, Rowling and the makers of the Harry Potter movies filed a lawsuit against RDR Books, a small U.S. publisher that plans to bring out a companion volume based on the Harry Potter Lexicon fan Web site.

Rowling has said she plans to produce her own encyclopedia of the wizarding world and says the book would infringe on her intellectual property rights.

Source: omg.yahoo.com

Labels: Autor, Book, English, News

Posted by Admin at 6:27 PM | Permalink | Comments