I’m eons late to this by blog standards, but I found J. K. Rowling’s Harvard commencement speech particularly ironic. Towards the end, she stated: “The friends with whom I sat on graduation day have been my friends for life. They are my children’s godparents, the people to whom I’ve been able to turn in times of trouble, friends who have been kind enough not to sue me when I’ve used their names for Death Eaters.”
Ah, the irony, given Rowling’s suit against RDR Books regarding “HP Lexicon, a Harry Potter reference guide that has existed on the web for a long time, and has become the authoritative guide to the people, places and things of the Harry Potter universe.” For those that are not familiar, according to Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society, “upon learning that RDR Books planned to publish a printed version of the Lexicon, Rowling and Warner Brothers filed suit, alleging copyright and trademark infringement, and seeking to permanently enjoin the publication of the HP Lexicon in printed form.”
I love fair use irony.
[Disclaimer (for those unfamiliar): CIS represents the defendant and I’m affiliated with CIS as a non-resident fellow.]
