Friend, foe or fan?

If you run, enjoy or just hang out at any kind of fansite, you might ought to pay attention to this legal case. I’ve got some plans to do a book later this year with material from theLogBook, and you better believe I’m watching this one very, very closely.

While I respect Ms. Rowling as the creator of all things Potter (and feel that the author of the other book perhaps could’ve done more to acknowledge her as such), this case is waltzing right into very dangerous territory. Intellectual property owners seem to spend an awful lot of time catering to superfans (or readers of superfans’ sites – let’s use Gateworld.net as an example), and cutting that particular cultural phenomenon off at the knees would have a worse effect than Paramount setting its internet phasers on Cease & Desist 12 or so years ago – mainly becuase back then, the ‘net was still more or less a curiosity, and now it’s practically another substratus of the world community. Fans will organize and rally against it.

Now, the flipside, to be fair: I’ve been in a copyright lawsuit (as the plantiff, no less), and my understanding of the law is that you’re on pretty stable ground so long as you bring your own scholarship and your own critical analysis to the table in a “derivative work”. A dictionary that probably leans very heavily on someone else’s written work is very likely not on that same stable ground. A book analyzing and critiquing the Harry Potter series would stand a better chance.

But when even the judge is urging everyone to settle? I don’t think anyone’s in any doubt that this case is wading into a minefield.