Lexicon Ruling: WHAT AN ASS!!

Judge waves gavel, says Avada Kedavra to Harry Potter Lexicon:

"Steven Vander Ark's Harry Potter lexicon has vanished and may never be seen again. The handy guide was not spirited away with the wave of a wand: it was, instead, banned with the bang of a gavel. In a ruling issued this morning, Judge Robert Patterson affirmed that Ark and his publisher had failed to demonstrate that the reference text fell within the scope of fair use.

Ark's lexicon began as a web site (now down) and quickly gained popularity. Rowling herself was once a fan of the web site and has previously lavished it with praise, gave it an award in 2004, and even admitted to using it herself while she was writing some of the later books in the series."

I don't know who to be upset about all this ... JKR for all the praise she had given the site until they decided to offer the same service (actually a little less) to people without the internet .... or perhaps the judge for now setting up a scenerio where fans of any series of books or televsion show or movies from making a compendium of information which can be found in publically released material ... maybe it was the Lexicon's lawyers who are to blame who could have, and should have, argued that since it was published in the US and she had already given her 'blessing' allowing the owner of the Lexicon to acquire a copyright under US publishing laws ... or maybe we should consider this the poisoning of her mind by Scholastic & Paramount who have been cracking down on anything that seems to smack even a hint of association with their 'cash cow'.

How long until they start going after any sites that mention the characters? Will they shut down Wikipedia? How about The Leaky Cauldron & Mugglecast, after all "the Leaky Cauldron" comes directly from the books and everyone knows that 'muggles' came from the series as well?

How about the Hogwarts sock swap? Will we be next? after all each of us use a 'potter name' and we use the 'house' system as well .... how about our websites where we publish our House Quizzes -- some of which ask for jpgs and bits from the books as well .... how about the buttons/links we made?

I mean can you see where this would lead?

This was a very bad decision -- and a case which should have never seen the inside of a court room -- but then I guess if you throw enough money at it, you can sue for just about anything!

Hey "Charmed" sites -- you're next you know. I suggest you get those Books of Shadows down ASAP! Oh and Trekkies .... how many of your sites will have go bye-bye now?

What a can of worms!