Bloomsbury Sued for Copyright Infringement in Harry Potter Book
LONDON, June 15 /PRNewswire/ --
LONDON, June 15 /PRNewswire/ --
Th
e estate of the English children's writer Adrian Jacobs has today issued proceedings in the High Court of England against Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, the publishers of J.K Rowling's "Harry Potter" series for copyright infringement.
The Estate, acting through its trustee Paul Allen, claims that in writing the book Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling copied substantial parts of the work of the late Adrian Jacobs, "The Adventures of Willy the Wizard-No 1 Livid Land", and that Bloomsbury in selling the books have infringed the Estate's copyright.
e estate of the English children's writer Adrian Jacobs has today issued proceedings in the High Court of England against Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, the publishers of J.K Rowling's "Harry Potter" series for copyright infringement.The Estate, acting through its trustee Paul Allen, claims that in writing the book Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling copied substantial parts of the work of the late Adrian Jacobs, "The Adventures of Willy the Wizard-No 1 Livid Land", and that Bloomsbury in selling the books have infringed the Estate's copyright.
"The Estate is also seeking a Court order against JK Rowling herself for pre-action disclosure in order to determine whether to join her as a defendant to the..action"
1987 Adrian Jacobs wrote the book "The Adventures of Willy the Wizard-No 1 Livid Land", which describes the adventures of a wizard named Willy.
1987 Adrian Jacobs wrote the book "The Adventures of Willy the Wizard-No 1 Livid Land", which describes the adventures of a wizard named Willy.
The copyright allegation argues that the plot of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire", published in 2000 and one of J.K.Rowling's best-selling books, is a copy of that to be found in Jacobs' book. Both books describe the adventures of a main character, "Willy" in Jacobs' book and "Harry Potter" in Rowling's, who are wizards, who compete in a wizard contest which they ultimately win.
Both Willy and Harry are required to work out the exact nature of the main task of the contest which they both achieve in a bathroom assisted by clues from helpers, in order to discover how to rescue human hostages imprisoned by a community of half-human, half-animal fantasy creatures, "the merpeople" in Harry Potter.
Many other similarities are described in the Claim filed by the Estate, which include the idea of wizards travelling on trains, famously referred to in Harry Potter as the Hogwarts Express. It is alleged that all of these are concepts first created by Adrian Jacobs in Willy the Wizard, some 10 years before JK Rowling first published any of the Harry Potter novels and 13 years before Goblet of Fire was published.
It is also alleged that, at the time in trying to get his work published, Mr Jacobs sought the services of a literary agent, Christopher Little, who also later became Ms Rowling's literary agent in the Harry Potter series.
It is also alleged that, at the time in trying to get his work published, Mr Jacobs sought the services of a literary agent, Christopher Little, who also later became Ms Rowling's literary agent in the Harry Potter series.
Mr Jacobs' book was ultimately published by Bachman and Turner in 1987. However, following a stock market crash, Jacobs became bankrupt and died penniless in a London hospice in 1997. By contrast, today the Potter Brand is a multibillion dollar global entertainment phenomenon.
In the action, the Estate is seeking an injunction to prevent further sales of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" and either damages or a share in the profits made by Bloomsbury Plc in selling books that are alleged to infringe Adrian Jacob's copyright.
In the action, the Estate is seeking an injunction to prevent further sales of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" and either damages or a share in the profits made by Bloomsbury Plc in selling books that are alleged to infringe Adrian Jacob's copyright.
Mr Paul Allen, the trustee of the estate, said ... "Because it is not right for the Estate to comment upon matters proceeding before the Court, all we would say is that Adrian Jacobs did not live long enough to see the massive success of the Harry Potter books and films. If he had he would have sought the proper recognition of his contribution to this success story. He cannot fight this battle personally so his estate is bringing this action to ensure that his voice is heard. The action, if proved, will ensure the rights of authors everywhere, even posthumously."
3 comments:
Didn't Rowling think all this stuff up on a train?
So wasn't Chris little the literary agent lucky! When Rowling's manuscript arrived it was the second book in 10 years to land on his mat with Wizard's colleges prisons hospitals trains
gambling wizards and so on that he apparently received!I saw www.willythewizard.com
Undeveloped but definitely JKR and her agent have some questions to answer!
Anonymous,
My book arrived on Little's desk not long after Jacob's and my book is undoubtedly the source of Harry Potter, a lamentable hybrid from the original I created in my book Travels with Li Po that you can find our about here http://www.bogsideartists.com/lipo/index.html.
Just to update you; We have launched a new website to inform the beguiled about Will's book Travels with Li Po, the indisputable source of Harry Potter... if, that is, you are allowed to believe it. Rowlings team has carefully nauseated the public with suits and counter-suits to keep this from getting the attention it deserves. Clever boys. The preceding comment to our last one gives us hope that there are intelligent people out there who can comprehend the business called Harry Potter and the utter dearth of moral values behind it. To find the original that gave rise to the whole shebang you will have to cut through the crap all by yourself. Here you are;
http://www.travelswithlipo.com
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