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So by know you've all heard the ruling on the Harry Potter Lexicon and the ultimate ruling, i.e., RDR Books and Steve Vander Ark are plagiarists. J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers bought the case to court saying just that and the judge ruled NOT only in their favor BUT also agreed that the issue was NOT with transformative works, but about plagiarism.
Nevertheless, some people keep characterizing this as BIG AUTHOR vs little fandom. At first, I thought this was just a lot of misinformed people but then I read this Slacktivist post and I realized ... no, they're not misinformed. People aren't repeating this lie of JKR vs. fanfiction out of lack of knowledge, or out of fear of their Harry Potter slash being suddenly verboten, or out of because they lack reading comprehension or anything like that. They're just believing this because they WANT to.
It's a sad thought, and hard to wrap one's head around. But it's the only thing that makes sense from just looking at the reactions of the anti-JKR crowd. You point to quotes about how it's not about money but copyright, they insist it's about money. You point them to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cleolinda's posts, they say fandom_wank is pro-JKR and can't be trusted. You point them to the ACTUAL court documents, they come up with a bizarre conspiracy theory about how the judge really wanted to agree with RDR and SVA but couldn't because Rowling and WB are an evil giant that must be appeased and blah blah blah blah blah.
No, these people have just decided a long time ago that JKR is inherently wrong and therefore her lawsuit must be wrong and that's the end of the matter. Why? Could be any number of reasons. They never liked the books. They don't like the books anymore. They feel burned by Anne Rice/LKH/MZB whoever and assume JKR must be the same type of person. They're huge fans of Orson Scott Card. They have some grudge against SVA's ex-pals at Leaky or some other bullshit that doesn't matter outside of the ridiculous monster subculture that is the Harry Potter fandom. The reason doesn't matter except only in that, as Fred Clark says, they find the reason more compelling than the reality.
So if you're sitting there tearing your hair out wondering why they won't listen, that's why. They want to.
And to be honest, I don't actually hate them for it, because this shit is pretty small and useless in the long run, but it's just true and had to be said.
Nevertheless, some people keep characterizing this as BIG AUTHOR vs little fandom. At first, I thought this was just a lot of misinformed people but then I read this Slacktivist post and I realized ... no, they're not misinformed. People aren't repeating this lie of JKR vs. fanfiction out of lack of knowledge, or out of fear of their Harry Potter slash being suddenly verboten, or out of because they lack reading comprehension or anything like that. They're just believing this because they WANT to.
It's a sad thought, and hard to wrap one's head around. But it's the only thing that makes sense from just looking at the reactions of the anti-JKR crowd. You point to quotes about how it's not about money but copyright, they insist it's about money. You point them to
cleolinda's posts, they say fandom_wank is pro-JKR and can't be trusted. You point them to the ACTUAL court documents, they come up with a bizarre conspiracy theory about how the judge really wanted to agree with RDR and SVA but couldn't because Rowling and WB are an evil giant that must be appeased and blah blah blah blah blah.No, these people have just decided a long time ago that JKR is inherently wrong and therefore her lawsuit must be wrong and that's the end of the matter. Why? Could be any number of reasons. They never liked the books. They don't like the books anymore. They feel burned by Anne Rice/LKH/MZB whoever and assume JKR must be the same type of person. They're huge fans of Orson Scott Card. They have some grudge against SVA's ex-pals at Leaky or some other bullshit that doesn't matter outside of the ridiculous monster subculture that is the Harry Potter fandom. The reason doesn't matter except only in that, as Fred Clark says, they find the reason more compelling than the reality.
So if you're sitting there tearing your hair out wondering why they won't listen, that's why. They want to.
And to be honest, I don't actually hate them for it, because this shit is pretty small and useless in the long run, but it's just true and had to be said.
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(On a vaguely related note on surface over substance, America's ol' gal pal Gov. Palin quoted an anti-Semite. I mean... ... ... it just gets better and better, doesn't it. o____o)
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a fanfen and some shit about this.I heard the ruling on NPR and in the judge's statement, he was very clear that this particular book took too much directly from JKR's already-published HP-companion books about beasts and quidditch. He didn't rule out the possibility of other people writing HP-companion books, either. The reporter said the judge wasn't at all moved by JKR whining about how she was working on more companion books-- he thought there was plenty of market for 'official' and non-official versions. Anyway, I thought the ruling was fair.
People should definitely fact-check before they open their mouths. I was just reading Snopes in regards to lies and fallacies in the political campaign. Sheesh. People just blithely pass along incorrect crap all the time...