US judge halts Harry Potter lexicon

1:24pm Tuesday 9th September 2008

Harry Potter author JK Rowling has won her claim that a fan in the US violated her copyright with plans to publish a Potter encyclopaedia.

Judge Robert Patterson, sitting in New York, said that Rowling had proven that Steven Vander Ark's Harry Potter Lexicon would cause her irreparable harm as a writer.

Rowling sued Michigan-based RDR Books last year to stop publication of the lexicon.

Judge Patterson permanently blocked publication of the reference guide and awarded Rowling and her publisher 6,750 dollars (£3,850) in statutory damages.

Vander Ark, a former school librarian, runs the Harry Potter Lexicon website which is a guide to the seven Potter books and includes detailed descriptions of characters, creatures, spells and potions.

The small publisher was not contesting that the lexicon infringes upon Rowling's copyright, but argued that it was a fair use of the material and allowable by law for reference books.

In his ruling, Judge Patterson noted that reference materials are generally useful to the public but that in this case, Vander Ark went too far.

"While the Lexicon, in its current state, is not a fair use of the Harry Potter works, reference works that share the Lexicon's purpose of aiding readers of literature generally should be encouraged rather than stifled," he said.

He added that he ruled in Rowling's favour because the "Lexicon appropriates too much of Rowling's creative work for its purposes as a reference guide."