Sprig: How likely would that be? Someone else writing about Harry Potter without her permission?
Stacer: As likely as someone writing about Peter Pan without permission, actually. Which is relatively often (Peter and the Starcatchers, Hook, etc.). She's talking about someone using the character after she dies and copyright expires. Plus, there's a lot of fan fiction out there (though I don't think that's what she means).
Sprig: Ahh, well I was more talking about while she lived since I doubt the copyright would expire in her lifetime.
You'd be surprised. This is really bizzare, but just today I read in some old blog on the Internet about a disgruntled fan who wrote and published a "corrected" version of HP and the Half-Blood Prince. I can't find the exact blog, but here's another link.
http://www.watleyreview.com/2005/072605-3.htmlA disgruntled Harry Potter fan has released a "corrected" version of J.K Rowling's latest installment in the series, The Half-Blood Prince, prompting a storm of curiosity and support from many fans who disliked the direction of the story in the book. It has also, not surprisingly, prompted a storm of legal activity from Rowling's publishers.
"Whenever an author puts a work out into the universe, it is no longer their exclusive property anymore," said Mary Sue Pembroke, who is credited as the author of the modified book. "Harry Potter belongs to all of us, not just Rowling. She took some liberties with the story in this latest book that really weren't faithful to the logic of the narrative. My version is, I think it fair to say, much more faithful to the true Harry Potter mythos."
"Rowling seems to think the relationships she's described in Half-Blood Prince were clearly telegraphed in previous books," sniffed Pembroke. "All I can say is, if that's what she thinks, she clearly doesn't understand Harry Potter like I do."
"The only way for an author to keep a piece of writing completely their own is to never have it published," insisted Pembroke. "J.K. Rowling, you asked for this."
What a blithering idiot!
As a writer, this really bothers me. You, a fan and NOT the author of the work, cannot take it and change the book to suit your liking and then *publish* it (granted, it was on the Internet, but still). And you, a fan, are not in a position to say whether or not the author has followed "the true Harry Potter mythos." She created Harry Potter--it's her mythos, loser!!! She can do with it what she wants! And claiming that if you publish it the world and characters become the property of the people is just baloney. What about copyright? This sort of thing makes me really leery of fanfiction--and the people who write it. (If you read in the article about her version, you'll probably laugh at how stupid it is. I did.)
No wonder J. K. Rowling is tempted to kill off her characters--with pyscho fans like this woman!
But, all this aside, it does kind of sound like, with that "hate mail comment" discussed in the first post, that Harry might be in danger. And I'm getting pretty worried about Ron and Hermione, too.
