14 Apr
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling may have created the most lovable fantasy characters since The Fraggles (well, I thought they were lovable anyway), but DO NOT FUCK WITH HER. Rowling testified today in a New York City court against a fan who she said committed “wholesale theft” of her intellectual — and extremely profitable — property.
“Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling said that Stephen Vander Ark, the author of the Lexicon fan site and a companion book, had, in a way that was “lazy” and “sloppy,” taken from her creations.
“I believe that the book contains wholesale theft of 17 years of my hard work,” she said. “It desecrates what I worked so hard to create.”
Vander Ark is 50 years old, and used to work as a teacher and librarian in Byron Center, MI, before moving to London recently to pursue a career in writing (writing other people’s characters, apparently). Vander Ark even has a fan site dedicated to him. The Web site, Lexicon, was started as a hobby. Vander Ark said that he’d never been contacted regarding the site in the past and had even declined previous offers to turn the Web site into an encyclopedia because he believed it was copyright infringement.
Rowling filed a lawsuit against Vander Ark and his publisher a year ago, and the court battle is expected to last through the week. Sucks to be that guy, I guess. Well, anyway, here are the Fraggles.