Harry Potter

[mollykins]

Are any of you lot going to see Harry Potter 7, part 1 when it comes out?

Unfortunately i'm one of the Potter generation who grew up with it. Although I was only four or five when the first book came out and didn't get into them until some of my friends went to see the first film and I went along with them.

[sandyRoe]

I bought a HP book to take to a book burning. That's as close as I'd want to get to that fiendish rubbish.

[jackthehat]

Okay. :o)

[joggerjayne]

Jack ...

Nancy Stouffer thought that JK Rowling had pinched a few of her ideas.

Stouffer had, before JK Rowling, published books involving ...

- a dark haired boy with glasses, who found out he was a wizard

- he went to wizard school

- there was a baddie wizard who was his enemy

- his friend was called Lilly

- people who were not magical were called "muggles"

- the boy wizard's name was "Larry Potter" (yes - really!!)

So, not even vaguely similar to anything by JK Rowling, then !

[jackthehat]

Nancy Stouffer

In 1999, American author Nancy Kathleen Stouffer alleged copyright and trademark infringement by Rowling of her 1984 works The Legend of Rah and the Muggles (ISBN 1-58989-400-6) and Larry Potter and His Best Friend Lilly. The primary basis for Stouffer's case rested in her own purported invention of the word "Muggles", the name of a race of mutant humanoids in The Legend of Rah and the Muggles, and Larry Potter, the title character of a series of activity booklets for children. Larry Potter, like Harry Potter, is a bespectacled boy with dark hair, though he is not a character in The Legend of Rah and the Muggles.[ Stouffer also drew a number of other comparisons, such as a castle on a lake, a receiving room and wooden doors.Portions of Rah were originally published in booklet form by Ande Publishing Company in 1986, a company founded by Stouffer together with a group of friends and family. Ande filed for bankruptcy in September 1987 without selling any of its booklets in the United States or elsewhere. Rowling has stated that she first visited the United States in 1998.

Rowling, along with Scholastic Press (her American publisher) and Warner Bros. (holders of the series' film rights), pre-empted Stouffer in 2002 with a suit of their own seeking a declaratory judgment that they had not infringed on any of Stouffer's works. The court found in their favour, stating that "no reasonable juror could find a likelihood of confusion as to the source of the two parties' works".[12] During the course of the trial, it was proven "by clear and convincing evidence, that Stouffer has perpetrated a fraud on the Court through her submission of fraudulent documents as well as through her untruthful testimony", including changing pages years after the fact to retroactively insert the word "muggle".Her case was dismissed with prejudice and she was fined $50,000 for her "pattern of intentional bad fait

[jackthehat]

damn..........
"
she was fined $50,000 for her "pattern of intentional bad faith conduct" in relation to her employment of fraudulent submissions, along with being ordered to pay a portion of the plaintiffs' legal fees. Stouffer appealed the decision in 2004, but in 2005 the appeals court upheld the ruling.She states on her website that she is planning to republish her books and is entertaining the possibility of another lawsuit against Warner Bros., J. K. Rowling and Scholastic Press.

The Legend of Rah and the Muggles is currently out of print. In the spring of 2001, it was published by Thurman House, LLC, a Maryland publishing company.Thurman House, formed by Ottenheimer Publishers to republish the works of Nancy Stouffer, was closed when Ottenheimer ceased operations in 2002 after filing for bankruptcy.Stouffer later asserted that any copies of the book published by Thurman House are unauthorised because the publisher failed to honour its contractual obligations to her. - Wiki

So that's that blown out of the water........

Next ?

[joggerjayne]

Oh, well that's that, then.

=0)

[Barmaid]

Yes we'll be going. I've read the books and at the weekend I bought the other 6 DVDs for the family to watch. Great family entertainment. When we were on holiday we took the children to see the Harry Potter bridge and the waterfall where he killed the dragon. We also stayed in the same hotel as the cast (not that we knew that when we booked it), but the staff made a big thing of showing them photographs etc. They loved it.

[NOX]

Yes I'm going to see it when it comes out,and for those who haven't read them and rather snottily suppose them to be 'children's books' it's as much a series of books for children as Lord of the Rings is- the subject matter is murder, torture and a totalitarian state- it's one of those series of books that go off on many levels and is therefore suitable for both kids and adults and it's a shame really that the films are so aimed at the kids market because a serious film meant for adults would have been something worth watching. As it is the films are always a bit too Americanised despite JK Rowlings best efforts so they haven't ( so far) quite levelled up to my hopes.

[rowanwitch]

Anything that gets children reading is a good thing....I read the earlier books but got bored with them...but think their escapist charm has a lot to offer adults...if only because they are easy to read and it gives you something to talk about with the nieces and nephews Wouldn't pay to see at cinema but will watch it when it is shown on tv

[joggerjayne]

I agree, Vibe ...

I think that's a slightly odd idea.

And there's no suggestion as to WHY? they would twinkle.

[joggerjayne]

Is the new Harry Potter in 3D ?

[Davethedog]

Although I would agree that the first three HP books were directly aimed at children, the explosion of popularity, in my opinion, led to the books taking a darker, and mor adult, turn.

I have no idea how JK's thoughts work but I would say some of the happenings in the latter books verge on the adult rather than childish fantasies.

"I go to church myself", she says, "I don't take any responsibility for the lunatic fringes of my own religion" JK Rowling

[rowanwitch]

Vampires should not twinkle , glow or anything like that but would have auras as technically they would be alive rather than living dead if they existed of course...

[Davethedog]

Have you seen "The Walking Dead"? Andrew Lincoln is in it. I shall watch episode 2 it was OK.

[joggerjayne]

I'm not big on zombie movies.

They're all a bit ... silly.

[jno]

Nancy Stouffer stands alongside Foxy Knoxy in JJ's pantheon of misunderstood women, jack... don't destroy the dream...

[annie0000]

I read the Harry Potter books when my son was 7 and started reading them - i wanted to check that they were suitable before letting him loose on them as he was very young. It started off as a chore, but I actually started to enjoy them. like Harry himself, the books grow up as you go along and by the time you get to book 4, they are equally good for adults. Same goes for the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings books - could never get into those as a child, but read them as my son was reading them and thoroughly enjoyed them as an adult. We will be going to the movie, but I have only really seen the last couple as the boys watched the others on dvd without me and I am not interested enough in the movies to watch them back.