An appeal in the “Harry Potter Lexicon” case
By Skip • Nov 19th, 2008 • Category: Books, Cult/Sci-Fi and HorrorRDR Books, the would-be publisher of the book version of the ‘Harry Potter Lexicon’ Web site, has filed an appeal from the judge’s decision in Warner Bros. Pictures v. RDR Books, the case involving the Harry Potter Lexicon. The judge, after a bench trial, issued an injunction and awarded statutory damages of $6,750 (as we discussed at the time), holding that the Lexicon was not protected by fair use due to (a) sloppiness in attribution in sections, (b) the length of some of the quotes, and (c) imitation of J. K. Rowling’s writing style in portions. I recently wrote an article criticizing the opinion, but doubting that an appeal would be taken in view of the small damages award. I guess I underestimated the resolve of the defendants and defendants’ lawyers — who include the Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society.
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Skip is the nerd out of the GSFN partnership. Skip enjoys nothing more than good sci-fi and horror, be it on the big screen, TV or in a book. He also likes the bad stuff too. Skip also has a thing for faces and continuously likes to point out actors from one film to the next, much to the annoyance of Drew.
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