JK Rowling: ‘Are we the owners of our own work?’
The bestselling British author returned to the witness stand in New York and told a judge that if he allowed the fan-written lexicon to be published, it would clear the way for countless rip-offs of her books, as well as the work of other popular authors.
“I believe the flood gates will open,” Rowling said, her voice rising. “Are we the owners of our own work?”
Rowling was giving evidence for the second time in the trial in Manhattan. A judge will decide whether to grant her request to block publication of The Harry Potter Lexicon, a guide to the characters, places and spells in her novels, written by a passionate Potter fan.
Middle-school librarian Steven Vander Ark, 50, compiled the material from a website by the same name that he had been operating for years.
RDR Books, the small publisher that talked Vander Ark into putting the website into print, has argued it is little different than any other reference guide to an important novel and should be allowed to go to press without interference.
Rowling said she was generally supportive of the right of other authors to write about her novels. But she said Vander Ark had “plundered” her prose and merely reprinted it in an A-to-Z format.
It is expected to be a number of weeks before a ruling is made.
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