Spookily, truth can be stranger than fiction. Even Harry Potter fiction. A mere couple of weeks after my spoof April Fool's story about a pretend Harry Potter book, there is now a genuine case and Joanne Rowling has been in court in New York asserting her rights to the Harry Potter properties.
Someone created a web site index to Harry's world and recently decided to publish it as a guide book. JK Rowling had a similar idea to create 'glossary/index' but as a work for charity.
The book at the centre of the case was for commercial gain. I happen to think that someone merely copying the index to Rowling's work is rather shabby and looking for holes in copyright law. Fair enough when fans do this kind of thing for no commercial gain, but a commercial work does raise interesting ethical questions.
The case is still running; we shall have to wait to see the outcome.
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