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Harry Potter and the fair-use goblins

By Mark Obbie

Copyright's fair use doctrine gets an unusually thorough airing in this story today by the Journal's Dan Slater, who's analyzing the challenges facing the judge in the trial over infringement claims by Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling against the publisher of an unauthorized reference guide. Slater explains the doctrine clearly enough, but he could have used more column inches to get closer to the heart of such disputes: namely, the policy purpose of granting substantial wiggle room to fans and critics who want to use an author's work as a starting point for a new work. And his piece would have benefited from some examples -- how this reference guide, for instance, uses Rowling's material. The particulars would make the law medicine go down a lot easier.

Full post as published by Lawbeat on April 18, 2008 (boomark / email).