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Harry Potter Publisher Defending Book No. 4 in Lawsuit
17-Jun-2009
Written by: Robin Lee
Accusations of plagiarism send Bloomsbury Publishing to court.
The publisher of the “Harry Potter” book series says they intend to defend author J. K. Rowling in a plagiarism lawsuit.
The lawsuit claims that J. K. Rowling stole the idea for Harry Potter from another book series about a boy wizard, according to MSN. The estate of the late author, Adrian Jacobs, has taken Bloomsbury Publishing PLC to court for copyright infringement.
Adrian Jacobs was the author of “Adventures of Willy the Wizard,” first published in 1987. Jacobs died in London in 1997. “The estate . . . claims that the book, ‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,’ reproduces substantial parts of the works of Adrian Jacobs, ‘The Adventures of Willy the Wizard,’ without consent, and that in selling the books, Bloomsbury has infringed and continues to infringe copyright,” read a statement made by London lawyers DMH Stallard, the firm representing the Jacobs estate.
Bloomsbury released a statement saying, “J.K. Rowling had never heard of Adrian Jacobs nor seen, read, or heard of his book ‘Willy the Wizard’ until this claim was first made in 2004.”
The Jacobs estate first approached Bloomsbury in 2004 with accusations of plagiarism but had no substantial evidence to prove that the “Harry Potter” text was copied from “Willy the Wizard.”
Bloomsbury says Rowling and the book “will be defended vigorously.” Rowling made no comment to the Associated Press about the suit.
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