14 November 2007

JK Rowling Misunderstands the Magic of Sharing

"It is not reasonable, or legal, for anybody, fan or otherwise, to take an author's hard work, re-organize their characters and plots, and sell them for their own commercial gain. However much an individual claims to love somebody else's work, it does not become theirs to sell."

Sorry, darling, it is not only reasonable to produce this kind of reference work, it is actually beneficial - to you, and the world. Not least because it discourages people from coming up with killer one-liners like this:

The big news from the world of Harry Potter isn't that Dumbledore is gay. It's that J.K. Rowling is greedy.

2 comments:

GFS3 said...

She might be feeling sensitive because of reactions like this:

http://darkpartyreview.blogspot.com/2007/11/
essay-banning-harry.html

Give the poor woman a break.

Glyn Moody said...

Well, there is a difference. Your link points to narrow-minded people misreading her work. My post was about a perfectly legitimate secondary creation based around her work, which she unreasonably finds some kind of infringement.

And *poor* woman...?