Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Re: Greed

Bothers me, too, Allitrya. I've recently made up a bunch of stitch markers, and intend to open an Etsy store, perhaps next month. And of course some of the markers are in colors which correspond to the House colors. I had intended to use Harry Potter to tag those markers ... now I suppose I'd better not. But in that case, how can I tag them so they'll come up on a search without putting myself into an untenable legal position?

This may not (please note I said 'may not') be all JKR, either. I know nothing, really, about publishing, but I do know a little bit about other businesses and her publisher and/or lawyers may also be behind this. I don't know how much personal choice she may/may not have in such issues.

But it sure is discouraging. Will she/they be after things like sock patterns and knitters next?

Lady Felula
Gryffindor House
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3 comments:

pren said...

i have some friends who use "wizard" to tag and others who just put harry potter and then on every listing say. "this item is inspired by the harry potter series and has no association with jkr or wb in any way." i hope that helps
allitrya spelling

September 9, 2008 at 4:13 PM
realrellim said...

I don't think that's her concern, in part because I think this is strictly about book and movie rights.

There's a huge difference between selling stitch markers and HP-inspired yarn, and intending to publish an encyclopedia based on someone else's best-selling series. A HP Encyclopedia would make a lot of $ for the publisher, and quite frankly, if one hasn't contacted JKR and WB to get their approval, it really is stealing someone else's brilliant idea. I suspect the spin-off HP-lit is not an issue, nor is anything HP-inspired. (Patterns based on the movie items that are for sale may be a different issue, seeing as *someone* designed them, but I don't know anything about clothing design copyrights, or whether basing one's design off of a movie is an issue in a for-profit setting.)

Also, consider that Charmed Knits, while not associated officially with JKR or WB, took care of the necessary copyright issues which then allowed them to publish several items that were featured in the movies, as well as several other HP-inspired ones.

September 9, 2008 at 9:03 PM
Auntie Alvira said...

As I understand it. Just put something like - Inspired by the harry Potter book series.
Then, just like all of those of us who are fan fic authors, be sure to include I am in no way affiliated with JK Rowling, her agents, publishers or W.B. Grandma

September 12, 2008 at 12:11 AM

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