J.K. Rowling Latest Lawsuit: Harry Potter Vs. Willy The Wizard
J.K. Rowling is dealing with another ridiculous lawsuit from an author crawling out of the woodwork to try and capitalize on the best-seller`s career. The most disgusting part? The author isn`t even alive.
The estate of Adrian Jacobs alleges that the character he created, Willy the Wizard, and the wizard contests, wizard prisons, wizard hospitals and wizard colleges contained in his 1987 book bare a striking resemblance to the corresponding world of the Harry Potter series. While I`m sure Willy the Wizard is a fantastic book, it is indeed a children`s book at a startling length of only 36 pages. It is large illustrations and simple sentences, and therefore entirely unlike the Harry Potter series.
Rowling fought a more realistic-sounding accusation in 2002 when she was accused of plagiarizing from a book by Nancy Stouffer called Larry Potter and the Muggles. Stouffer lost the case and an appeal, despite many coincidences, not the least of which was the title. If that case wasn`t strong enough to at least settle out of court, I can hardly understand why Jacobs` estate is claiming they have a "billion dollar case."
I`m pretty sure that I must have written at least one story when I was younger about a wizard boy that did normal things like me, like going to school and playing games. Does that mean I should expect a legal-size envelope in the mail soon? Harry Potter is about people--it`s hard to write about people without jobs and schools, jails and hospitals. It`s like if Mario Puzo had sued David Chase for creating The Sopranos. More than one story about a subject can be written, and they will inevitably be wholly different products.
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