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In defence of Harry Potter guide

NEW YORK: A group of intellectual property lawyers at the Stanford Law School has offered to help defend a small publishing house that is being sued by author J.K. Rowling over its plan to print an unauthorised companion guide to her Harry Potter novels.

The Fair Use Project at Stanford’s Centre for Internet and Society announced on Tuesday that it had signed on to aid the defence of Michigan-based RDR Books, which plans to release The Harry Potter Lexicon.

The publication has been blocked by the lawsuit. Ms. Rowling and Warner Bros., which produces the Potter films, said the lexicon borrows heavily from the novels, which amounts to copyright and trademark infringement.

Fair Use Project Executive Director Anthony Falzone said the lexicon is protected by U.S. rules that have long given people “the right to create reference guides that discuss literary works, comment on them and make them more accessible.” According to RDR, the book is based on material found on the fan-written website hp-lexicon.org. — AP

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