The Corner Office: Battling the 'Potter' Goliath
Here, RDR’s publisher, Roger Rapoport, discusses how his small company handled the international media blitz that surrounded the legal battle and why he decided to publish a new version of the book that seemed destined to never reach bookshelves.
● Why was the first “Lexicon” book considered copyright infringement, but the second, published version is not?
Roger Rapoport: The new book complies with the fair use guidelines that are part of New York Federal District Judge Robert Patterson’s decision on the earlier book. …. The judge ruled that lexicons are legal and added that the author of a fictional work does not have a monopoly on companion, nonfiction works such as A-Z encyclopedias or lexicons. He then spelled out, for the first time in a federal court decision, how reference books of this kind could be acceptable under fair use. It was those guidelines that Steve followed when writing this new “Lexicon.” Our opponents … issued a statement saying that the new book was fine with them.