I never got into the Harry Potter craze and always felt the media frenzy surrounding the books and movies was utterly over-hyped. And this news isn’t going to make a convert out of me – if anything, I hate Rowling even more now:
A community group in the Indian city of Calcutta says it has been sued by JK Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter books, for breach of copyright.
The group has been building a huge model based on Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as part of celebrations for a Hindu festival.
A court in the capital, Delhi, will start hearing the case on Friday.
Next week’s Durga Puja festival is a huge event in eastern India – thousands pay homage to the Hindu goddess Durga. (link)
(via)
The local communities in charge of the Durga Pujo celebrations try to outdo each other in their pandal and lighting decorations and will channel whatever cultural or political incident is popular that year. Some of them turn out to be rather garish (the sinking Titanic when the movie was released), while others are in poor form (WTC Twin Towers and planes flying into them) . This one, judging from the picture, seems to be rather good. Either way, the structures are created with public donation and organizers don’t charge a paise for people to come viewing (which they do in droves). So if anything, the pandal should be viewed homage to Rolwing and the popular fictional world she has created and not as a profit-making venture. So I cant really fail to understand the validity of the law-suit.
Come Halloween and numerous Harry Potters and other characters from Harry Potter comics crawl out of their momma’s basements infesting the world of us muggles. I implore Rowling and her gang of lawyers to sue these nerds. Why wait till Halloween? Throughout the year, there are numerous kiddie birthdays with Harry Potter themes. I say, sue those lil’ bastards ….. and their parents. Why wait till they are adults? Teach them to fear lawyers right from the onset. The world will be a better place.
Could not have applied the sarcasm better.
Considering that this might be the action of some overzealous stiff-suit
To be fair, it is possible that Rowling herself is not aware of this – currently she seems to be busy getting a
make over. It is possible that this is the handiwork of some overeager smartypants at WarnerBros/penguins. But eventually, the suit is being carried out in her name and with the media attention this thing is starting to generate – I cant imagine it being good to her image – facelift or not.
(img source)
Lol… I detest the Potter hysteria, too… and everytime I see manic fans coming up with such crazy things, it only amuses me more!
Deplorable action this!
Update: A Delhi court trashed Rowling’s case.
Totally agree with your viewpoint on this one. I actually wanted to blog about it. Such an action should be discouraged, esp. after you consider the cause, which in this case was purely religious and non-profit oriented. I have lived in Calcutta for the better part of my life and have seen these pandals. Let’s see how many B’day parties she manages to break into.