"Harry Potter" author wins copyright lawsuit

NEW YORK — A judge ruled Monday in favor of "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling in her copyright-infringement lawsuit against a fan and Web-site operator who was set to publish a Potter encyclopedia.

U.S. District Judge Robert Patterson said Rowling had proved that Steven Vander Ark's "Harry Potter Lexicon" would cause her irreparable harm as a writer. He permanently blocked publication of the reference guide and awarded Rowling and Warner Bros. Entertainment $6,750 in statutory damages.

"I took no pleasure at all in bringing legal action and am delighted that this issue has been resolved favorably," Rowling said Monday in a statement. "I went to court to uphold the right of authors everywhere to protect their own original work. The court has upheld that right.

"The proposed book took an enormous amount of my work and added virtually no original commentary of its own. ... Many books have been published which offer original insights into the world of Harry Potter. The Lexicon just is not one of them."

Rowling and Warner, maker of the Harry Potter films and owner of intellectual property rights to the Potter books and movies, sued Michigan-based RDR Books last year to stop publication of material from the Harry Potter Lexicon Web site. Vander Ark, a former school librarian, runs the site, which is a guide to the seven Potter books and includes detailed descriptions of characters, creatures, spells and potions.

The small publisher agreed that nearly everything in the lexicon came from Rowling but argued that it was a fair use allowable by law for reference books. In his ruling, Patterson noted that reference materials are generally useful to the public but that in this case, Vander Ark went too far.

Vander Ark, a devoted fan of Rowling, began work on his Web site in 1999 and launched it in 2000.

The seven-book Potter series, which ended last year with the final book in the series "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," have been published in 64 languages, sold more than 400 million copies and produced a film franchise that has pulled in $4.5 billion at the worldwide box office.