JK in court battle over Potter book

THE battle over the publication of a Harry Potter encyclopaedia “decimated” JK Rowling’s creativity and halted all work on a new novel, the author said yesterday.

Ms Rowling claimed the Harry Potter Lexicon, based on the internet fan site of the same name, “constitutes wholesale theft of 17 years of my hard work”.

The Harry Potter author was giving evidence in a New York court, where she is suing RDR Books to stop publication of author Steve Vander Ark’s encyclopaedia.

Ms Rowling, who argued her copyright would be violated by the Lexicon, told the court she stopped work on a new novel because the lawsuit has “decimated my creative work over the last month”.

Anthony Falzone, for RDR Books, defended the Lexicon as a reference guide and described it as a legal effort “to organise and discuss the complicated and very elaborate world of Harry Potter”.

Ms Rowling brought the lawsuit last year and the trial, which is being heard by Judge Robert Patterson without a jury, is expected to last one week.

The book was originally to be published by RDR Books on November 28 last year, but the judge issued an order at an earlier hearing banning completion, distribution, marketing or advance sales of the book until further notice.

Ms Rowling has said she takes “no pleasure” in preventing the Lexicon’s publication and added she felt “sad and disillusioned” that the case had ended up before the courts.

The Lexicon’s publisher Roger Rapoport described the case as a “David and Goliath battle with an eye toward protecting the rights of readers and writers everywhere”.