A pie recipe would have flour, which can be used by everyone. A Harry Potter encyclopedia would have the name Neville Longbottom, and that name is owned by JKR. But the problem is not the one or two mentions of the things that JKR owns, it is that Steve has almost all of them in the Lexicon. So in this case it is not the recipe that is getting Steve in trouble, it is the ingredients.

We also have had a report on the qforquack blog of Steve writing in an E-mail I reported in the last thread that "Jo has reserved all publishing rights to her intellectual property, which means that she's the only one who may publish any book that is a guide or encyclopedia to her world." If this is true, it means that Steve knew he wasn't just copying a few recipes. I wonder what changed his mind?

That same email, which may or may not be legit, mentioned he wanted to petition Jo after the last book and propose cowriting the definitive encyclopedia. What we understand from the various parties involved is that she said NO. All I can think is that this was a terrible blow to his self-esteem. Everyone involved with him seems to like him and defer to his wisdom. That the very architect of the Potterverse was unmoved by his offer must have bruised his ego.

Ok I'm going to continue the pie analogy form the end of the last thread and on why JK wont let SAV have a slice of the pie so to speak.

Ok you've baked this pie, you have put your time, effort and love into this pie and it will certainly be a delicious pie.
Now you have left this pie to cool on the window (yes isn't it just the ultimate cliché) A neighbour that your friendly with comes over seeing the pie and asks for a slice. You say no for whatever reason.
You turn your back and when you come back to the pie you see that this person has taken a slice. How would you feel finding this person you where friendly with has taken a slice of your pie after you said no. Now you could let the person take the piece after all they took the trouble to go get a knife and cut a good maybe even small slice of it. But then what would happen maybe someone else, another friend or whatever sees him with a slice of pie and asks for a bit to, but now you can't just say no I mean the other person has pie and you allowed it. Soon your left with no delicious pie that you spent time on left for yourself.

I making myslef hungry now mmmmmmmmmm delicious pie *drools*

nov 2nd me

lets put it like this then.
-You have baked a yummy cake and leave it on the window to cool.
-I steal it and put some icing (frosting) on it
-I then sell slices to passers by for $2 per slice.
Do i deserve the money or do you the person who has bought the ingredients and spent time baking the cake deserve it? (you were going to take that yummy cake and hand it out at the soup kitchen too, never mind you'd give the money to the soup kitchen anyway, but youd rather just have given them the cake...)

Now that makes me think of something interesting...what about a book of Potterverse name meanings, with separate entries for first and last names? JKR might own "Neville Longbottom" but does she own all references to "Neville" and "Longbottom" separately? (Nevilles of the world certainly hope not, I'm sure).

Not that I think anyone might buy such a book. But do our resident experts have a decision on that? If a book writer listed all the first names of HP characters and their name meanings, and then listed all the surnames of HP characters and their name meanings, would that be infringing?

Lidane, I avoided the Prophecy convention. But that YouTube clip is frightening. "Jo has quit; she is done... the fans are taking over now!" Did Steve say that before or after he was rebuffed by Jo?

What on earth did he mean by "Jo has quit; she is done"?

I think a more accurate pie analogy would involve say...sharing a recipe for pie and having that recipe published in a cookbook without your consent. Although the HP series is too big to be just one recipe. Let's say it's a cookbook itself, full of recipes, and someone else comes along and takes those recipes, rearranges them, and publishes it as their own cookbook. Is that infringement? I don't know - there are a lot of awfully similar cookbooks out there.

What if the other person takes those recipes, includes a lot of notes about the origins of each dish and other uses for the same ingredients, and charts the evolution of each dish...would that constitute a new work, even though it is based on someone else's recipes? Again I don't know.

And I'm not asking anyone to tell me either, these are rhetorical questions.

We also have had a report on the qforquack blog of Steve writing in an E-mail I reported in the last thread that "Jo has reserved all publishing rights to her intellectual property, which means that she’s the only one who may publish any book that is a guide or encyclopedia to her world." If this is true, it means that Steve knew he wasn't just copying a few recipes. I wonder what changed his mind?

Now that makes me think of something interesting...what about a book of Potterverse name meanings, with separate entries for first and last names? JKR might own "Neville Longbottom" but does she own all references to "Neville" and "Longbottom" separately? (Nevilles of the world certainly hope not, I'm sure).

oh! great minds think alike- either that or ill have to send you a cease and desist letter.... Isnt baking fun?

I don't know if you intended it, but the analogy of the recipes is strangely apt:

Food Fight: Jessica Seinfeld's "I Never Read That Book" Defense Smells A Little Fishy

The cookbook case seems far more clear-cut than the Lexicon case because it seems there was direct copy-paste going on, but just a funny coincidence, and perhaps an example of a different variety of copyright issues (such as that copying verbatim from a cookbook for your cookbook is not permissable).

The Harry Potter Lexicon, with a cover price of $24.95, was originally slated for a print run of 5,000. Rapoport said that figure may now be much greater because of the attention brought on by the lawsuit. Still, he told AL, "I'm very optimistic that this will have a happy ending, and that everyone will enjoy the book, including our opponents."