Photo By Louis Lanzano
© Associated Press
By Krista Flynt
A federal judge ruled in favor of author J.K Rowling in her copyright infringement lawsuit against a web site operator planning to publish an encyclopedia of Harry Potter terms, reports the Associated press.
U.S. District Judge Robert P. Patterson permanently blocked publication of the reference guide and awarded Rowling and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. $6,750 in statutory damages. Patterson said Rowling had proven that Steven Vander Ark's Harry Potter Lexicon would cause her irreparable harm as a writer.
The trial began in April, 2008, after Rowling and Warner Bros. sued publisher RDR Books to stop publication of material from the Harry Potter Lexicon web site. Vander Ark has run the site since 2000, which is a guide to the Potter books and includes detailed descriptions of characters, creatures, spells and potions.
And, though Rowling had once praised Vander Ark’s Web site, she testified earlier this year that the lexicon was nothing more than a rearrangement of her material.
The RDR Books did not contest that the encyclopedia infringes upon Rowling's copyright, but argued that it was a fair use allowable by law for reference books. In his ruling, Patterson found that while reference materials are generally useful to the public, Vander Ark had overstepped his bounds.
He added that he ruled in Rowling's favor because the "Lexicon appropriates too much of Rowling's creative work for its purposes as a reference guide."
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