An owner of Harry Potter Lexicon website, Steven Vander Ark, 50, was been approved to run the website without no harm the copyrights. However, he was being sued after the publication by J.K Rowling. J.K Rowling claimed, “This book constitutes wholesale theft of 17 years of my hard work."
RDR's lawyer, Anthony Falzone, had defended the lexicon as a reference guide, calling it a legitimate effort "to organize and discuss the complicated and very elaborate world of Harry Potter."
The small publisher did not contest that the lexicon infringed upon Rowling's copyright, but argued that it is a fair use allowable by law for reference books.
However, Rowling had proven that Steven Vander Ark's "Harry Potter Lexicon" would cause her irreparable harm as a writer and therefore she has won her claim that a fan violated her copyright with his plans to publish a Potter encyclopedia.
Ethically, in publication, there are laws to respect. Authorship, copyright and plagiarism are critical issues in publication (Anillee, 1999). According to Walker (1997), No one are allowed and not supposed to use other people’s work more than 10 percents of their works.
In addition, when using other people’s ideas, it is important to give credit by citing or quoting their name in order to give respect to their hard work or else, it is plagiarism (Anillee, 1999). Plagiarism applies to both published and unpublished ideas, electronic (e.g. website, email) as well as print versions of material.
It is the same for duplicate publication as well. According to Anillee (1999), “Duplicate publication occurs when authors pass off, as original, research that has been published either substantially or in its entirety elsewhere”. A duplicate publication shared the same ideas, stories and conclusion.
In my opinion, collaborators who have made a significant ideas contribution should be credited as authors. It will prevent you from getting any copyright lawsuit. Therefore, this has proved that whether you are as student, a lecturer and even a professional writer, plagiarisms are not above the laws in any country.
References
1) Walker, J 1997, “Intellectual Property in the Information Age: A Classroom Guide to Copyright,” University of South Florida, viewed on 13th November 2009, <http://personal.georgiasouthern.edu/~jwalker/ip/ipdummie.html#special>.
2) G. Annilee & A.W. Michael (1999), “Ethical Publishing Principles – A Guideline for Authors”, The British Psychology, viewed on 12th November 2009, <http://www.bps.org.uk/downloadfile.cfm?file_uuid=224B55CC-1143-DFD0-7E9A408F74B75795&ext=pdf>.
3) CBS News, 2008, “Harry Potter’s author wins copyright claim”, CBS News, viewed: 13th November 2009,
<http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/08/entertainment/main4426302.shtml>.
4) CBS News, 2008, “Rowling ‘Betrayed’ by fan’s work”, CBS News, viewed: 13th November 2009,
<http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/29/entertainment/main3891575.shtml?source=related_story>.
5) CBS News, 2008, “J.K Rowling Testifies in copyright suit”, CBS News, viewed: 13th November 2009,
<http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/14/entertainment/main4012889.shtml?source=related_story>.
No comments:
Post a Comment