The bit about the lawyers is so played. SVA said he approached JKR/CLLA, but when we actually got to read what happened it was a rather pathetic plea for a job to stay in the UK. He never mentioned a book to CLLA. Before he signed with RDR, he had a chance to mention it to his fans. Did he? No. When Neil Blair emailed him to ask what was up, SVA blew him off and claimed it was outta his hands. But no lawyers had entered the picture at that point.

And that line that he would have supported Jo, HaHaHa! Then why didn't he? Contract? Give me a break! He's the one who asked RDR to indemnify him should JKR sue. If he hadn't expected the Lexicon would be against her wishes, he'd never have demanded it be added to the contract. Nor would he have have accused her of a power grab. He pretended that crack about Jo being finished at Prophecy was just a feeble joke, but it was the truth. He really wanted to break with her and go it alone.

And this brings us to the myths and legends that SVA has written about his case. He has deluded himself into believing that Jo never wanted this lawsuit, that it was forced upon her by WB and her lawyers. Not true. She made that abundantly clear on the witness stand.

He has deluded himself into believing that there was some El Dorado Lexicon which, if only that pesky injunction hadn't stopped his noble work, would have been fair and true and a real goldmine. Not true. The Lexicon wasn't in the early stages of editing, it was in the final stages. SVA's own declaration includes numerous edits and corrections, none of them improving the text with citations or quotation marks or by removing the plagiarized passages. Ha, he even touts his own entry on Luna Lovegood as being original, but where he can't get the Ravenclaw motto straight. (Note to SVA: Mottos are supposed to be quoted exactly, not paraphrased.)

Finally, the myth that he couldn't have stopped it if he wanted to. Not true. He could have asked JKR/CLLA before he signed the contract; he could have been open about having signed the contract before beginning the work, that would have made cancelling easy; he could have sent a copy of the MS to Neil Blair on Sept 15; he could have/should have shared the terms of the contract with Melissa and the Leaky Cauldron; he could have broken with RDR when Roger stubbornly refused to talk to Dale Cendali. He did none of these things. Instead, Roger, Peter, Elanor and Steve have been playing variations of Good Cop/Bad Cop from the beginning.

davidenglish: he could have/should have shared the terms of the contract with Melissa and the Leaky Cauldron
Why on earth would he have done that? Leaky isn't a party to the contract AFAIK and, though it hasn't colored the news coverage IMO, it's hardly a secret that Leaky is sympathetic to JKR.

davidenglish: Yes, RDR might have sued SVA, but what does SVA have that RDR might get from him? Nothing. But he'd have saved his reputation, instead he prefered to keep his purse and let his reputation be trashed.
He'd still have to defend, which costs money, and he could have wound up with a judgment creditor. It's easy to take such a caviler attitude when it's not your assets on the line.

davidenglish: The bit about the lawyers is so played. SVA said he approached JKR/CLLA, but when we actually got to read what happened it was a rather pathetic plea for a job to stay in the UK. He never mentioned a book to CLLA. Before he signed with RDR, he had a chance to mention it to his fans. Did he? No. When Neil Blair emailed him to ask what was up, SVA blew him off and claimed it was outta his hands. But no lawyers had entered the picture at that point.
Why should he mention it to anyone? He believed Mugglenet was going to publish the same thing and had no reason to believe MN wouldn't follow through. The judge didn't believe JKR had the right to ask anyone not to publish an encyclopedia but she did claiming it infringed her rights. The fact it hadn't even been written was inconsequential I guess. The premise of the book was fair Neil Blair should have been as aware of that as Cendali. They were just doing JKR's bidding to make sure no one put out an encyclopedia before she did.

There really was no break with her to be made, he never met her.

Here is where I am confused. When JKR said on the stand that she had no intention of stopping the book only that it be changed to take less of hers, was she serious? Why didn't she put the suit on hold and allow SVA to make the changes she demanded? It struck me as rather odd that she made that statement on the stand as a rebuttal only to charges of copyright misuse.

He should have done what Mugglenet did, roll over and play dead because JKR didn't want another encyclopedia on the market before hers. There should be no need to discuss breaking contracts when JKR only wanted changes to be made.

Forum Thingumajig

davidenglish; mods; staff, and SVA. Here’s the thing: why not let davidenglish and SVA do one of those live typed forum discussions? It would just have davidenglish and SVA and one experienced moderator capable of actually typing anything but any Leaky Member could look in. Rule no.1 would apply and the mod could interject at will as well as ask the odd question of either davidenglish or SVA.

The house elves could type it all up and post it later for anyone to read. SVA would have time before the discussion to get legal advice as to what he could or could not answer. Could be fun. SVA gets his chance to put his case (including to davidenglish), and davidenglish gets to ask questions that all of us want answers to. It’s cheap and easy and it’s direct with no intermediaries and no editing unless rule no.1 is broken (which won’t happen with either of them). Finally, most relevantly, it would address many of the issues raised in this thread over the last year and give everyone a lot to think about etc.

Wanna play?

My goodness! Such a delightful example of Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc. What specifically did the judge say about MuggleNet? What's more, MuggleNet received its Cease & Desist letter before the release of DH and RDR would have known about it as he was closely tied to their publisher. Indeed, when MuggleNet canceled its book, RDR used that as a selling point to foreign publishers.

I would point out that the book version of the MuggleNet Encyclopedia was cancelled. Indeed, in submission #37, attachment 14, Roger Rapoport mentions that it was cancelled and goes on to diss it. (He also called the Idiot's Guide to HP "junk"). What I would like to know is when it became known in the inner circles of HP fandom that MuggleNet had been asked not to publish. Roger Rapoport knew it in mid-October and he probably knew that it had been canceled after receiving the same requests from WB/JKR that he was ignoring. And why wouldn't SVA have had a clause in his contract allowing the book to be cancelled should WB/JKR object. No, instead, he was to be indemnified from legal proceedings.
BTW, I would note that I went to the MuggleNet Encyclopedia to see if I could find out more and couldn't. . . .

Q. Let's take a look at Plaintiff's Exhibit 14K. I want to
19 direct your attention now again to this e-mail which starts in
20 the middle of the page from you to Mr. Riff dated September
21 6th. . . . .

Q. So you knew there were possible competitors, right?
14 A. Of course.
15 Q. And you wanted to be out to market before them, right?
16 A. Yes. I knew that Ulysses Press was working on a book.
17 That was coming out November 28th.
18 Q. And, in fact, you thought this book would be more
19 comprehensive than other books coming out about Harry Potter,
20 right?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. Let's take a look at Exhibit 139.
23 You mentioned Ulysses Press, what were they planing to
24 do?
25 A. They had another book. The Mugglenet team was doing a

1 book. You have heard about it already today.
2 Q. Why did you want to get out to market before them?
3 A. We just wanted -- because we were going to be competing
4 with them.

What we know is that MuggleNet's publisher was sent a C&D letter before DH. Ulysses Press, MN's publisher, told MuggleNet's authors that it would be possible to rewrite the encyclopedia to meet fair use standards. Apparently discussion did go on throughout August and September. Although it would have been possible to do, it seems MN didn't feel there was much point in doing all that work and losing the friendship of JKR. TLC learned that the MN book was dead in mid-October.

However, we also know that Rapoport learned the book trade by working at Ulysses and, as one can see from the trial testimony, RDR was fully aware of the situation facing MN and was actually delighted. I have no doubt that RDR considered the MN encyclopedia competition. But I also have no doubt that RDR knew that Ulysses had been sent a C&D letter. Indeed, I suspect it was RDR's strategy to let MN take all the heat while he and SVA worked in secrecy.

It is one of those sad ironies in this case that TLC learned that MN's encyclopedia had been canceled and passed that information along to SVA, thinking his book had been given the greenlight by JKR. SVA didn't mention any of the troubles he was in. And this was doubly disturbing when one considers that TLC held the HPL registration and was paying its hosting and tech expenses. Had WB/JKR not made a distinction between the infringing book and the website, TLC would have been in trouble too.

Oh, yes, the premise of the book was fair. It was the execution that was unfair. And SVA never intended to make the book live up to his premise. Even on the stand he had to be prompted to define 'clankers' in his own words rather than in JKR's. And he still didn't understand what the difference was between his words and hers.