Harry Potter - Scholastic rejects Harry Potter plagiarism suit

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Scholastic rejects Harry Potter plagiarism suit

Scholastic says the recent plagiarism lawsuit filed against it by the estate of late English author Adrian Jacobs is completely without merit. The suit alleges that the Harry Potter series is "substantially similar" to Jacobs's The Adventures of Willy the Wizard: Livid Land. J.K. Rowling said, "The claims that are made are not only unfounded but absurd."

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Reader Comments:

Has anyone of you read the book in question? Are there really similarities? I tried to get hold of the book in the library but it wasn't even stocked. Hmmh. I just find it very unlikely that Rowling would be so careless when researching for her work as to neglect any obvious sources. I cannot believe it. If there are really similarities, they must be minor and coincidences. But then again that would still make them plagiarisms I suppose.

Posted by Siena from Nottingham, UK on July 22, 2010 10:43 AM

I did have a look at the available excerpts on the Adrian Jacobs. If you look further down the comments page you find another article and my comments on it. I could repeat them here, but I know Dave prefers us not to do that.
Plagiarism does not consist of "similar" or even identical themes. It consists of words - copying great chunks of text. You cannot copyright ideas or even plot points, only the words.
From what I have read of the excerpts this claim is a nonsense. The Jacobs book is so poorly written that I can't imagine anyone actually forcing themselves to read it unless they had to. It appears to have been self-published and to have had a very limited circulation, so the likelihood of anyone here having read it is about zip. Check out the Jacobs website if it's still up and read the excerpts. They are woeful. Positively sick-making.

Posted by Elizabeth from Australia on August 1, 2010 04:52 AM

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