Cameo Clips

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled against a finding of copyright fair use by the author of “The Lexicon,” a comprehensive guide to the popular Harry Potter books. The district court also found “The Lexicon” infringed on companion books by Potter author J.K. Rowling about an imaginary sport and fictional beings in the Potter series. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. v. RDR Books, 07 Civ. 9667(RPP). Looking at the fair-use factors under Sec. 107 of the Copyright Act, the district court concluded: “The first factor [i.e., the defendant's purpose and character of use] does not completely weigh in favor of Defendant because although 'The Lexicon' has a transformative purpose, its actual use of the copyrighted works is not consistently transformative. ' [M]any portions of 'The Lexicon' take more of the copyrighted works than is reasonably necessary in relation to 'The Lexicon's' purpose. ' [In addition, t]he creative nature of the copyrighted works and the harm to the market for Rowling's companion books weigh in favor of Plaintiffs. In striking the balance between the property rights of original authors and the freedom of expression of secondary authors, reference guides to works of literature should generally be encouraged by copyright law as they provide a benefit to readers and students; but to borrow from Rowling's overstated views, they should not be permitted to 'plunder' the works of original authors.”