For those of you who are interested in plagiarism issues in commercial
publishing (and to give examples to students), here is the latest
high-profile plagiarism case.
The National Law Journal reports:
"A trustee of the estate of late author Adrian Jacobs filed a copyright
infringement suit on Tuesday against Scholastic Inc., the U.S. publisher of
the wildly popular Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. The trustee sued the
British publishers of the series in 2009 and Rowling in 2010. Those cases
are pending.
The latest suit, filed in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of
New York, alleges that Rowling copied themes from Jacobs' The Adventures of
Willy the Wizard - No 1 Livid Land in her book Harry Potter and the Goblet
of Fire. Willy the Wizard was published in the United Kingdom in 1987, while
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was published in 2000. Willy the Wizard
was not published in the United States. Jacobs died in 1997."
There is more to the report, of course. Rowling denies having read the
Willie series, but interestingly Jacobs brought the Willie book to the
literary agent who now represents Rowling, so Rowling may have had access to
at least the ideas of the Jacobs book, albeit indirectly. I'm sure the
lawsuit will be followed by the US press, so just watch for more reports as
Scholastic begins its reponses.
Carol Simpson
Retired
csimpson at carolsimpson dot com
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please note: All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law.
You can prevent most e-mail filters from deleting LM_NET postings
by adding LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU to your e-mail address book.
To change your LM_NET status, you send a message to: listserv@listserv.syr.edu
In the message write EITHER:
1) SIGNOFF LM_NET
2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL
3) SET LM_NET MAIL
4) SET LM_NET DIGEST
* To contact an LM_NET Moderator: LM_NET-request@listserv.syr.edu
* LM_NET Help & Information: http://lmnet.wordpress.com/
* LM_NET Archive: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/archive/
* EL-Announce with LM_NET Select: http://lm-net.info/join.html
* LM_NET Supporters: http://lmnet.wordpress.com/category/links/el-announce/
* LM_NET Wiki: http://lmnet.wikispaces.com/
--------------------------------------------------------------------
LM_NET
Mailing List Home