The Judge Wants a Settlement
Apparently, Judge Robert Patterson feels similarly to many Potter fans. Towards the end of today, he asked both parties involved if they could reach a settlement, stating that he feels that the case between JK Rowling and Steve Vander Ark/RDR Publishers has become more lawyer-driven than client-driven.
The Wall Street Journal Law Blog reports the events of today as follows:
Judge Patterson removed his glasses and addressed the court. “I’m concerned that this case is more lawyer-driven than it is client-driven,” he lamented. “The fair use people are on one side, and a large company is on the other side. . . . The parties ought to see if there’s not a way to work this out, because there are strong issues in this case and it could come out one way or the other. The fair use doctrine is not clear.”
“I’m bringing it up now so you can think about it before you get into the rest of the case,” Judge Patterson added. “Maybe it’s too late; maybe we’ve gone too far down the road. But a settlement is better than a lawsuit.”
The plea came as plaintiffs counsel Marvin Putnam of O’Melveny was cross examining a witness, an exchange that seemed to leave the lawyer frustrated and losing patience. The Judge broke in to point out that it was four o’clock, and asked Putnam how much longer he needed. Putnam apologized, and said he’d need quite a bit longer.
I don’t know about you but I am hoping that this will be as painless as possible and that the folks on both sides will strongly consider settling the case. From a purely selfish perspective, I hope that this can be resolved painlessly. I hate seeing what it is doing to the Potter author/fan/fandom relationship, which used to be looked at as a model to be emulated. Now it is starting to feel like a dysfunctional family.
Tags: Fair Use Doctrine, Harry Potter, Harry Potter Lexicon, JK Rowling, Judge Robert Patterson, RDR Publishers, Steve Vander Ark, Trial
April 15th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
A settlement certainly would be good! I hope they can come to one.
April 15th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
I just think this is silly. If JKR thinks that it is a copy right infringment then it is.. And he has his website so why couldn’t he just continue with that? I personally would just like her to write her version of a lexicon or whatever and he could continue on his website.. Because personally, I wouldn’t pay for something that I could get free online.. And also, aren’t there supposed to be extra Information she is adding into her encylcopedia or whatever she is calling it?
April 15th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
I hope they can settle too. I know that there has been at least one Star Wars encyclopedia written, maybe more. Isn’t that along the same lines? What happened in those cases? Help me out here, Greg.
I do agree that this is all information about a world created by JKR. But SVA has done a tremendous editing job on this. It’s been a huge project that has taken him 8 years. I don’t see why he can’t just publish the work and have an acceptable percentage of the profits go to JKR or a charity of her choice. Isn’t that what she plans on doing with the proceeds to her Encyclopedia?
April 15th, 2008 at 10:22 pm
i hope they settle. i think this whole mess is so dumb! it just needs to be over with already. i think it is splitting up the potter community. everyone is having to take sides and it just is to over done.
April 16th, 2008 at 12:52 am
if only they would listen for once to judge dumbledore….
April 16th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
[...] the hopes of a full settlement were apparently too much to ask for. Darn. The WSJ law blog tells us that when the courts [...]