geri_chan | Isn't this a bit petty?

I thought I was done posting about the Lexicon case, since the the judge has made his ruling, but then I saw this news post on Mugglenet with a link to this news article about JKR's agents asking to review Steve's planned travel memoir of Potter-related places to make sure it does not violate her copyrights. Now, if he were revising the Lexicon book or writing a similar type of companion guide, I would understand their concern. However, it seems obvious from the book's description--a travel guide detailing his trips to real places mentioned in the books, such as King's Cross station--that it falls within fair use, as he's describing his own experiences, not summarizing the books. I don't know; maybe this is something her lawyers advised as an automatic precaution, but it comes off to me as petty harrassment.

There are some nasty anti-Steve comments on the post, though not as bad as stuff I've seen posted during the trial coverage. There are also some sympathetic remarks as well, but what caught my attention was this link to a blog post where the OP claims that Melissa Anelli threatened to sue Karen Brown, the author of "a scholarly book about prejudice in the Harry Potter novels," because she alleged that her posts in the Leaky Lounge forum had been edited due to pro-JKR/WB bias. Apparently it got to the point where the author felt compelled to issue a press release to defend herself. This apparently happened back in May, and I haven't heard about Melissa suing anyone, so I'm guessing that it never actually got to that point--maybe it was just a bluff; maybe she decided to back off when the author fought back. To be fair, I should state that I haven't heard Melissa's side regarding this; she made no response on the blog post, although some Leaky forum members showed up to defend her.

You can read the press release and the blog post comments for more info, but be warned--it contains the kind of nasty, vicious comments that got me riled up about the Lexicon case in the first place, degenerating into personal attacks on Steve and his girlfriend. As far as I can tell, the Leaky supporters are alleging that Ms. Brown's post was edited because she insulted another forum member by comparing them to a member of religious cult. In her press release, Ms. Brown denies attacking anyone personally, and says that she only took issue "with comparisons that were jokingly made between JK Rowling and God". Obviously, I'm somewhat biased, having my own issues with Melissa and John, as mentioned on my previous posts, but it sounds like all this woman did was express her personal opinion, which was somewhat critical of Leaky's coverage of the trial. I mean, jeez, is Melissa going to sue everyone who disagrees with her? Hey, maybe I should be worried. (Being sarcastic there, obviously, but I wouldn't be surprised if some fans were intimidated by either the alleged threatened lawsuit, or just the general combative tone of the trial discussions, and chose not to voice critical opinions, at least on Leaky.)

All this controversy has had an effect that Leaky probably had not intended--now I want to go and read Karen Brown's book! ^_^ I looked it up on Amazon, and it sounds pretty interesting, so I'll probably buy it the next time I place an order there.