dear JK...

[Urlik]

Originally Posted by Teresa Edgerton

But a lot of those similarities are just clichéd thinking about magic, witches, school children etc. And as far as all of those elements they are putting up for comparison are concerned, you could find those in combination in dozens of children's books. It only looks like she is directly copying someone when you put her books up side by side with one other author.

true, for a given value of truth

but it is strange that soon after aquiring HP, WB bought the rights to 3 of the works that could have had good grounds for plagiarism

if you didn't know better, who would you guess this was?


well that is Tim Hunter (who, if WB do indeed make the film) will age from being 12/13 in the stories to 15/16 in the film and his glasses will no longer be round

and it isn't just one author she is being compared to.
the name comes from a film and is also similar to Larry Potter written by an author who also copyrighted the name muggles as a term for the non magical characters in another story (but was unsuccessful when she tried to fight JKR on the grounds of copyright theft).

the basic character list for HP and WW is almost identical.

her plagiarism may have been unconscious (she may have noticed the names Larry Potter and Muggles in a library or bookshop and not realised.
she may have seen a poster for Troll in a video store or a cinema and not realised.
she may have read a Worst Witch book when she was younger and forgotten about it.

"I've no idea where ideas come from and I hope I never find out, it would spoil the excitement for me if it turned out I just have a funny little wrinkle on the surface of my brain which makes me think about invisible train platforms."

or maybe she has realised that she has become very rich through unconscious plagiarism and is in denial :shrug:

[Teresa Edgerton]

Originally Posted by Urlik

Larry Potter written by an author who also copyrighted the name muggles as a term for the non magical characters in another story (but was unsuccessful when she tried to fight JKR on the grounds of copyright theft).

You can't copyright names and you can't copyright ideas, so the other author did not hold a copyright on the term Muggles. And I remember that case. I believe there was also a character named Lily Potter, the same as Harry's mother. But the court didn't find enough similarities to rule in favor of the other author and against J. K. Rowling. In a work of fiction, it can be very hard to prove a case of infringement, unless similarities are numerous and parts of the text appear to be copied or paraphrased.

Oh, and I was particularly interested by her remarks about the train platform, because that was pretty much lifted straight out of a book by Eva Ibbotson.

[PTeppic]

Although maybe not copyright, I thought she (or Warner) had trademarked some of the main character names/terms?

[Teresa Edgerton]

That's quite different, however. With so much Harry Potter merchandise being sold, I would imagine that a great many of the characters -- and whatever else can be turned into merchandise of one sort or another -- have been trademarked by now.

But the other author wouldn't have had a trademark on anything in her book, because there wouldn't have been any licensed products associated with it.