Author JK Rowling has won her legal battle in a New York court to get an unofficial Harry Potter encyclopaedia banned from publication.

 

Judge Robert Patterson said in a ruling Ms Rowling, 43, had proven Steven Vander Ark’s Harry Potter Lexicon would cause her irreparable harm as a writer.

 

Ms Rowling sued Michigan based publishers RDR Books last year to stop publication of Mr Vander Ark’s book.

 

He wrote the book after running a popular Potter fansite.

 

Following the ruling, Ms Rowling said her legal action had aimed “to uphold the right of authors everywhere to protect their own original work”.

 

She said: “The proposed book took an enormous amount of my work and added virtually no original commentary of its own.”

 

The statement added: “Many books have been published which offer original insights into the world of Harry Potter. The Lexicon just is not one of them.”

 

‘Gone too far’

 

The book had been originally due for publication on 28 November 2007, but legal proceedings prevented it from being released.

 

Ms Rowling had originally supported the Lexicon website, but she said there was a difference between fans publishing information for free on the internet, and selling it in the form of a book.

 

Making his ruling, Judge Patterson said reference materials could help readers, but Mr Vander Ark had gone too far in this case.

 

He said: “While the Lexicon, in its current state, is not a fair use of the Harry Potter works, reference works that share the Lexicon’s purpose of aiding readers of literature generally should be encouraged rather than stifled.”

 

He said he had made his decision because: “Lexicon appropriates too much of Rowling’s creative work for its purposes as a reference guide”.

 

‘Not about money’

 

In April, Ms Rowling gave evidence in court and said the encyclopaedia amounted to “wholesale theft”.

 

The author has always denied the case was about money.

 

She had been planning to write her own definitive encyclopaedia, the proceeds of which she had intended to donate to charity.

 

However, she told the court in April she is not sure if she has “the will or the heart” to do it after all.

 

At the time RDR Books argued that it is little different than any other novel reference guide and should be allowed to go to press without interference.

 

Source: BBC News Online

 

Stuart Rothgiesser

Writer, Researcher, Editor

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1. Coffee (n.), the person upon whom one coughs.
2. Flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how much weight you have gained.
3. Abdicate (v.), to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
4. Esplanade (v.), to attempt an explanation while drunk.
5. Willy-nilly (adj.), impotent.
6. Negligent (adj.), describes a condition in which you absentmindedly answer the door in your nightgown.
7. Lymph (v.), to walk with a lisp.
8. Gargoyle (n.), olive-flavored mouthwash.
9. Flatulence (n.) emergency vehicle that picks you up after you are run over by a steamroller.
10. Balderdash (n.), a rapidly receding hairline.
11. Testicle (n.), a humorous question on an exam.
12. Rectitude (n.), the formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.
13. Pokemon (n), a Rastafarian proctologist.
14. Oyster (n.), a person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.
15. Frisbeetarianism (n.), The belief that, when you die, your Soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.
16. Circumvent (n.), an opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men.

The Washington Post’s Style Invitational also asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are this year’s winners:

1. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
2. Foreploy (v): Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting sex.
3. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.
4. Giraffiti (n): Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.
5. Sarchasm (n): The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn’t get it.
6. Inoculatte (v): To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
7. Hipatitis (n): Terminal coolness.
8. Osteopornosis (n): A degenerate disease.
(This one got extra credit.)
9. Karmageddon (n): its like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it’s like, a serious bummer.
10. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.
11. Glibido (v): All talk and no action.
12. Dopeler effect (n): The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
13. Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you’ve accidentally walked through a spider web.
14. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
15. Caterpallor (n.): The colour you turn after finding half a grub in the fruit you’re eating.
And the pick of the literature:
16. Ignoranus (n): A person who’s both stupid & an …hole.