The author of Harry Potter, J.K Rowling, has won the lawsuit against Michigan-based RDR Books for the publication of a Potter encyclopaedia, stating that the encyclopaedia is mere rearrangement of her work, resulting in so much plagiarism. The Harry Potter series has been sold globally on an estimated amount of 400 million copies, besides having a film franchise of $4.5 billion in the box office. Anthony Falzone defended the RDR Company with an explanation that the lexicon produced is only a reference guide, to help readers interpret and analyze difficult parts in the Harry Potter novel (CBS News 2008). “Copyright owners”, with respect to any one of the rights declared by the United States copyright office, are people who are legitimate of the rights given to the copies, be it movies, books or any other form of material (U.S Copyright Office n.d). These laws are formed by the government to protect the creator of works such as software, music, books, literatures and other works so that they gain financially from their work. Violation of copyright laws results in piracy. Piracy is a big issue these days because due to the advancement in digital technologies, distribution of materials is made easy. The internet, especially, allows distribution of materials therefore making it difficult for copyright holders to control piracy through web-based applications (Chilling Effects n.d). In my opinion, it is fair for J.K Rowling to win the case because the RDR Company would be benefitting from what is rightfully hers. Even though the encyclopaedia was meant to assist in making Harry Potter understandable, but the authors should have used a different approach in writing instead of rearranging materials from the Harry Potter novels and claiming it as their work. Copyright laws are enforced to safeguard the original works and ideas from the creator. Therefore it is only fair that the publication of the encyclopaedia is put to a stop entirely due to its violation of copyright infringement. Without these laws, plagiarism would be widespread, enabling other parties to copy original work of others, passing it on freely, giving absolutely no credit to the creators. Also, if RDR wanted to publish a guide for Harry Potter fans, the publishers should have asked permission from the author of Harry Potter. Once permission is obtained and proper referencing is done with acknowledgements of the author, the author would definitely not sue RDR for the little use of her work.
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