Michael Gravel Edmonton Writer

Journal

Feb
15
2008

Linkage Feb 15 08

5 Comments (Closed)

1

Mary

Mike,

Great news! Facebook let me change my name to Dolly Varden…Wallace better watch his back now!

Mary

PS Did you know that you are running for President in America? I just discovered it when I searched for your website, had I know early I might have tried to use my vast connections to line you up with a celebrity equal to Obama’s Oprah or Huckabee’s Chuck Norris. Alas, our exit polls are telling us that you should probably just settle for a good Dolly Varden reference every now and then.

2

Mike Gravel

Ha! That’s funny. Dolly Varden is such a great name.

And yes, the presidential candidate thing is also quite humorous. When the guy announced his candidacy back in ’06, I got a ton of email from people who thought I was him. It was fun. I would love to be president.

3

Adam Snider

You side with Rowling? Why? Unofficial guides to fictional universes are published all the time. They don’t infringe on copyright, so why should this particular case be any different?

The authors/editors of this book haven’t stolen Rowlings ideas. They aren’t claiming to have created the intellectual property. I don’t see how this isn’t fair use.

4

Mike Gravel

That’s easy to say when you’re not the author of the work in question. And also easy to say if you haven’t poured your life into it., built it into a massive, successful thing like Rowling has (regardless of its artistic merit). I’m no fan of Rowling, but I think she’s in the right here.

The guys in question didn’t ask permission. Didn’t communicate with Rowling at all. If it were me in Rowling’s shoes, I’d be pissed if someone decided to publish a guide that I myself was planning to publish – whether I was donating the profits to charity or not. They should have approached her as a gesture of good faith, if nothing else.

She wrote it, she created it, she built it into something. She put in the real work. She should be able to decide – to a reasonable degree – what is done with her creation. She can’t control everything, and inevitably, unofficial guides will be published and fan websites will exist. Some of these may help her, some may not.

It’s a touchy area that seems to be in flux right now. It’ll be interesting to see how it turns out.

5

Adam Snider

I see where you’re coming from, Mike, but I think that guides of this nature generally have more potential to help an author than hurt her. And, I admit that I only skimmed the article you linked to, because I read a similar one in the past, but as far as I know, Rowling had no intention of writing such a guide, but rather feels that she should retain the right to do so, and no one else should be allowed to. Personally, I disagree. Derivative works are (usually) covered by fair use, and aren’t the same as outright plagiarism.

I’ll admit that, as a writer, I have mixed feelings about copyright law. While I certainly don’t want anyone stealing my work, I recognize that some of the greatest works of art (written or otherwise) have been created as a result of playing off of existing pop-culture, “borrowing” ideas from other sources, and occasionally even from borderline plagiarism (see nearly everything Shakespeare and Chaucer wrote).

While I definitely think that authors’ and creators’ rights need to be protected, I think that clamping down too tightly on intellectual property will ultimately stifle creativity, and make the world a much less interesting place.

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