Harry Potter Encyclopedia Won't Be Published

A federal judge ruled Monday that a diehard "Harry Potter" fan's seven years of work on a Potter encyclopedia cannot be published after author J. K. Rowling filed a suit to halt the book's publication, the New York Times reported.

The judge ruled the encyclopedia was too close to the popular Potter series and would cause Rowling to lose profits off of her original work.

"Plaintiffs have shown the lexicon copies a sufficient quantity of the Harry Potter series to support a finding of substantial similarity between the Lexicon and Rowling's novels," Judge Robert P. Patterson ruled.

Rowling and Warner Brothers were awards $6,750 in damages.

The lexicon, authored by Steven Jan Vander Ark, was the culmination of his popular fan site, the Harry Potter Lexicon. Vander Ark said the decision would not affect his passion for the "Harry Potter" series in any way and hopes the disagreement about the publication of the book will not be taken personally by either side.

"I have been a huge fan of the Harry Potter series and Ms. Rowling for 10 years; that's not going to change," Vander Ark said. "We had a disagreement about the definition of a particular book. It was a legal disagreement. I would rather it not be personal."

Vander Ark is working on another book that will chronicle his travels to locations similar to those described in the "Harry Potter" series.