As one of many world’s most recognizable manufacturers, Harry Potter has spawned books, films, performs, video games, and theme parks. With the films grossing $7.2 billion on the field workplace and the books bringing in an excellent larger $7.7 billion in gross sales, J.Ok. Rowling rapidly grew to become the richest Brit on this planet, overtaking the likes of Richard Branson and the queen.
However the place the cash goes, the lawsuits will comply with. From shameless fraudsters to adoring followers, numerous individuals have tried to money in on this moneymaking machine. So from the considerably questionable to the downright outrageous, listed here are 10 lawsuits involving the Harry Potter franchise.
10 Nancy Stouffer
US creator Nancy Stouffer first heard about Harry Potter in 1999, two years after the primary e book had been revealed. Apparently, she was instantly horrified. Not solely had Rowling blatantly and shamelessly hijacked the time period “Muggles,” she had simply barely altered the title of The Boy Who Lived from one among Stouffer’s characters, Larry Potter.[1]
Stouffer’s characters got here from a sequence of booklets she had produced within the late 1980s as a part of what had been supposed to be month-to-month exercise packages for youngsters. Solely two had been ever produced, none had been ever bought, and their similarities to the Harry Potter sequence might be generously described as “nearly coincidental” at greatest.
One booklet, The Legend of Rah and the Muggles, featured a race of tiny, furry mutants known as muggles that by no means exceed 51 centimeters (20 in) in top and journey round on bees. Larry Potter and His Finest Buddy Lilly was a coloring e book a few boy who was unhappy as a result of he wanted to get glasses.
Stouffer arrange one other publishing firm in 2001 to republish her works underneath the title “N.Ok. Stouffer” after which sued J.Ok. Rowling. Rowling’s attorneys rapidly ripped the case to shreds as a result of the tales are nothing alike and so they discovered a sample of significant fraud on Stouffer’s aspect.
She failed to supply any proof of the unique works, and so they came upon that Larry was solely known as “Potter” in a single paragraph. That paragraph was written in a distinct font than the remainder of the story, a font that hadn’t been invented within the 1980s.
Moreover, The Legend of Rah and the Muggles appears to have initially been known as Rah, with the opposite phrases added afterward. The printers employed on this case weren’t able to producing the font used for the opposite phrases.
Stouffer was fined $50,000, and her case was thrown out. She appealed and misplaced once more. Nevertheless, she stated that she was nonetheless contemplating authorized motion in 2006. Since then, she has not filed any extra lawsuits towards Rowling.
9 Willy The Wizard
One other story that Rowling had allegedly determined can be the proper sufferer was the story of Willy the Wizard by Adrian Jacobs. Sadly, it was not Jacobs himself who alleged plagiarism however his household.
Jacobs had been useless for 12 years after they introduced swimsuit in 2009. Although Rowling had already turn out to be a billionaire together with her worldwide phenomenon, his property claimed that she had stolen giant components of The Goblet of Hearth from Willy the Wizard.
The weather that had been allegedly stolen included a wizard contest by which rivals needed to rescue a hostage from half-human, half-animal creatures. In Harry Potter, they had been mermaids. In Willy, they had been kangaroo centaurs.
Additionally they play wizards’ chess, learn wizards’ newspapers, and go to wizards’ jail. Nevertheless, the “jail” in Willy the Wizard was extra of a seashore known as Banish Bay. Additionally, each books featured trains. The case was thrown out in 2011.[2]
8 eBay And eBooks
Ebooks have been a fantastic addition to the publishing business, permitting readers from wherever on this planet to rapidly and affordably entry nearly any e book they need. The issue is that it’s a lot simpler for anybody with a pc to supply copies of books and promote 1000’s of them with out investing in among the dearer facets, reminiscent of printing or buying the creator’s permission.
In 2004, J.Ok. Rowling had this downside with Baazee.com, the Indian arm of eBay. Whereas Baazee itself had not created the ebooks, it was permitting a variety of customers to host pirate copies of the Harry Potter sequence.[3]
Rowling was awarded a wierd, sort-of injunction towards the positioning, which said that they’d be pressured to take away the unauthorized ebooks until they did so voluntarily. Whereas an order like that doesn’t actually depart a lot room for voluntary motion, the ebooks, sellers, and associated ads had been all faraway from the positioning.
7 Harry Potter And Bao Zoulong
Talking of The Goblet of Hearth, who might neglect that ending? The Darkish Lord has returned! For years, followers waited with bated breath, solely to lastly open the fifth e book and be greeted by the fantastic first paragraph.
“Harry doesn’t know the way lengthy it can take to scrub the sticky cream cake off his face. For a civilized younger man, it’s disgusting to have filth on any a part of his physique. He lies within the high-quality china bathtub, retains wiping his face, and thinks about Dali’s face, which is as fats as the underside of Aunt Penny.”[4]
At the very least, these had been the phrases that will greet you in the event you had been unlucky sufficient to buy the fraudulent 2002 Chinese language installment. Initially mistranslated by Western media as Harry Potter and Leopard Stroll As much as Dragon, Harry Potter and Bao Zoulong was rapidly revealed to be a pretend fifth installment written by an nameless creator.
In it, Harry is reworked right into a magicless dwarf who has to battle a dragon. It quickly grew to become obvious that many of the e book was J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit with the names modified. Evidently, followers of the franchise weren’t fooled by the poor imitation and the publishing home chargeable for this monstrosity was ordered to pay a measly £1,600 (US$3,400) positive.
6 Claire Discipline
The good thing about having the assist of a big, multinational company is that they will—and can—take down anybody who steps in your toes in even the slightest means. The draw back of that is that they generally ship their gargantuan military of attorneys after a 15-year-old woman. That is what occurred in 2000 after they set their sights on Claire Discipline only a few days earlier than Christmas.
Claire was such a fan of the Harry Potter books that she ran her personal web site, harrypotterguide.co.uk. However with the primary movie resulting from be launched the next yr, Warner Brothers determined to purchase up any area title with “harry potter” in it, which resulted in them sending a threatening letter to the younger woman.[5]
The story quickly made headlines in Britain, and Warner Brothers backed down. Regardless of having had back-and-forth communication with the woman’s father, Warner Brothers claimed that media stress had not impacted their choice and the entire thing had been a clerical error.
5 Harry Potter Lexicon
Claire Discipline wasn’t the one proprietor of a Harry Potter fan website that butted heads with J.Ok. Rowling. In 2007, RDR Books was planning to show the Harry Potter Lexicon web site into an encyclopedia-type e book that will record the spells, potions, creatures, and characters featured within the novels.
Regardless of having beforehand praised the positioning and its proprietor, Steve Vander Ark, Rowling stated that she had plans to publish the same e book and couldn’t assist a fan doing so “for their very own private acquire.”
In 2008, a Manhattan decide blocked the e book’s publication on the grounds that there was not sufficient authentic commentary and the e book was merely putting Rowling’s phrases in a distinct order. He additionally awarded Rowling and Warner Brothers $750 for every of the seven novels and the 2 companion books, Quidditch By the Ages and Incredible Beasts and The place to Discover Them. This elevated the online value of the franchise by a whopping $6,750.
Vander Ark did finally publish a shortened model of his e book, with the phrase “unauthorized” clearly on show within the title.[6]
4 Wyrd Sisters
There are such a lot of “bands” nowadays that developing with an authentic title will be troublesome. That is notably true if the band is a background function talked about in passing a grand whole of 4 instances. So you could possibly forgive J.Ok. Rowling for not overthinking issues and going with the not-too-imaginative title “Bizarre Sisters.”
Winnipeg folks band, The Wyrd Sisters, was not in such a forgiving temper. After being provided $5,000 for the suitable to make use of the title by producers of the movie, the Canadian band shot again with a $40 million lawsuit.
Regardless of spelling the title in another way, the truth that the band had been acknowledged by the movie’s producers gave them some floor to accuse Warner Brothers of copyright infringement. The lawsuit lasted 5 years earlier than being settled out of court docket for an undisclosed quantity.[7]
3 Asda vs. Bloomsbury
A very powerful rule in enterprise is to supply customers with a services or products you understand they need, so stocking the ultimate Harry Potter e book looks like a no brainer. However the second most vital rule is to make a revenue. So when grocery store chain Asda introduced that they’d be promoting their 500,000 copies for £8.97 as a substitute of the advisable retail worth of £17.99, issues rapidly acquired nasty.
In a scathing press launch, Asda accused the e book’s writer, Bloomsbury, of “holding kids to ransom.” Bloomsbury threatened that Asda might be sued for libel. Then, in a transfer that had nothing to do with Asda’s press launch or pricing, Bloomsbury determined only a few days earlier than the e book’s launch to cancel the order, citing unpaid payments someplace within the area of £38,000.
Asda hit again, claiming that Bloomsbury additionally owed them £122,000. However with simply days to go earlier than the discharge of one of many largest books in a long time, Asda got here crawling again with its tail between its legs. In addition to paying their excellent payments, they issued a press launch apologizing “unreservedly” for his or her earlier assertion and the 2 corporations grew to become buddies once more.[8]
2 Proper To Learn
When releasing one thing as extremely anticipated as a brand new Harry Potter e book, protecting the plot a secret is paramount. So when 14 copies of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince had been by chance bought in Canada earlier than the official launch date, Rowling and her attorneys sprang into motion. Nevertheless, their authorized proceedings weren’t directed on the retailer that had mistakenly bought the books however on the followers who had purchased them.[9]
The Supreme Courtroom of British Columbia rapidly issued an order prohibiting anybody who had bought the e book from promoting, displaying, and even studying the e book earlier than the official launch date. This kicked off a significant public debate concerning the “proper to learn.” Whereas one aspect argued that, like a private diary, persons are not entitled to learn a e book that had not been acquired legally, the opposite aspect argued that the courts can not forestall individuals from studying one thing they’ve of their possession.
An analogous mishap occurred with the discharge of the ultimate e book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, when two distributors dispatched some copies early. Ultimately, no punitive damages had been sought in both case.
1 Aaron Lambert
Whereas some copies of the books have been bought earlier than their official launch date accidentally, Aaron Lambert thought he might make a fairly penny by promoting copies of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to the press over a month earlier than its official launch date.
Lambert had entry to the books by way of his job as a safety guard at a warehouse and made off with two of the 10 million copies that had been being saved there. Then he contacted reporters from the Every day Mirror and the Solar and negotiated offers value a complete of £80,000 (US$111,250).
One of many reporters, John Askill, agreed to satisfy Lambert however truly deliberate to steal and return the books to J.Ok. Rowling. However when Askill tried, Lambert fired a pretend gun, which led to the police displaying up and arresting him.
After being launched on bail, Lambert then tried to blackmail the publishers. However he was arrested once more and sentenced to four-and-a-half years in jail for theft in addition to firearm and blackmail offenses.[10]
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