Since the whole RDR thing I have become highly concerned about my own work, which examines racism and prejudice themes in the Harry Potter novels. I suspect that some people on here will say "Shame on you. You are trying to profit from JKR's success." The thing is, I worked on the project for over 5 years as an academic subject. I want to publish it if only to gain something for all the time and effort I invested in it; and I am really passionate about the themes. It is a genuinely well-researched book that I feel very proud of as the product of MY own diligent study and hard work.

I wrote to Christopher Little years ago asking permission to publish it. All he said was the agency and Rowling does not authorize any publications, but they will express no objections if citations are accredited to the author, kept to a minimum, and if you make clear on the front of the book that it is "Not authorized by J.K. Rowling."
What I want to know is, what is JKR's true position on any published material that examines her work? Are we literary critics all seen as parasites, basically?

Out of respect for the Leaky audience and JKR, I will not post the blog URL or any advertisements here. But if anyone wants to hear more about the study, please feel free to email me.

If you read the discussion about the current litigation I think you'll see the difference between work that actually studies Rowling's writings and includes significant input from the scholar and work that merely reorganizes information found in Rowling's writing with very little added material. Considering the numerous books that received Rowling's approval I don't think she disagrees with the publication of work that relates to her writing in principle.

In Jo's own words, from the news section on her website:

It would seem to me like the work you're describing is in the category of literary criticism and analysis, which Jo says is "perfectly legitimate," and to which she would not object.

And from one fan to another, please, please, PLEASE publish your work. It sounds fascinating, and I really want to read it. I highly doubt that anyone here would accuse you of trying to rip off Jo or the fans for producing an academic work that does some serious analysis of one of the series' most serious ongoing themes. We like a good, legitimate, companion book. It's the sketchy ones we're wary of.

You say you wrote to Christopher Little "years ago", kabbymoh, but why not write again now to confirm the position, especially in light of the current case? You could refer to your earlier letter and their response, and even offer to send them a copy of the finished manuscript with the disclaimers and citations. That would be a very polite and proper way of avoiding any difficulties, and would certainly prove that you have attempted to do the right thing by all concerned.

Alkari

Thanks for the input Alkari. I was planning on doing that anyway. The printed book is not yet available. It comes out on E-book first and then the book itself will be available some time in mid to late March. I thanked both JKR and the CL agency in the acknowledgements. And I was hoping to even send JKR a copy with my thanks, compliments and excuses (!). I really do hope that she wont mind. In any event, I think the prejudice themes are indeed a "legitimate" mode of enquiry and I am surprised that no other critic has bothered to examine them in depth. She has had to overtly state in interviews that her books are sending a message of tolerance; and still, most viewers & readers prefer to focus on other things (movies, memorabilia, the so-called "HP hype," etc). I do think the message gets lost sometimes...at least it is under-emphasized and not acknowledged enough by the audience. Can you believe how many scathing news articles popped up after she announced Dumbledore was gay?! LOL! So my main concern and hope is that she herself was not planning to write a similar book some time in the future, because I know she cares about these themes as much as I do; and perhaps even more.

Well, CLLA seems to have given you a very reasonable response. He's summarized the Fair Use doctrine and stated JKR's position on Derivative Works.

1. Rowling does not authorize any publications. In other words, she reserves all rights to derivative works.
2. [The agency and Rowling] will express no objections if.... They will not sue if it meets fair use. However, sometimes WB or JKR will ask to see a manuscript to confirm that they will have no objections. But the onus is really on you to have a lawyer or librarian with some knowledge of copyright examine the manuscript.
3. [C]itations are accredited to the author, kept to a minimum. Again, this is a call to adhere to fair use and to give proper MLA citations to the quoted passages. If you've been following the WB/JKR vs RDR case, you'll know that paraphrasing should be cited and that quotation beyond 5% is likely to put you in a risky position. Indeed, above 10% is nearly always considered copyright infringement.
4. "Not authorized by J.K. Rowling." The disclaimer is meant to make it clear that the work is your sole responsibility and that WB/JKR had nothing to do with it. It also means that they have not implied any license to the copyrighted material should they decide that it does infringe in some way. And it protects them should some third party decide it infringes on someone else's work.

If the basic precautions are taken, I don't see why they would object. As has been pointed out, there are already almost 200 books out there. And academic articles on the Potterverse are published every month. The secret is to make sure the book is mostly your original ideas and interpretations of the way HP takes on racism and prejudice. Check out the excellent links offered in the Lexicon Lawsuit thread on the Art of Paraphrasing. And use quotation as evidence to support your ideas, not as a substitute for your writing.

Good luck.

David, I have certainly done all of those things. Yes, I had to summarize the book plots in the introduction for readers who have never read Harry Potter. But I have actually bought HP commentary material where the almost the entire works were comprised of "summaries," and then a few pages of speculation as to what would happen in future books. It frustrated me to read these most because I am ever looking for literary (critical analysis) of Rowling's work and was hoping that someone else would have beat me to writing about the prejudice themes. That's why my only and greatest concern is that Rowling herself might have been planning on writing a similar book (about racism, homophobia and so forth). After all, she has come out and said several times in the media that her books were a "prolonged argument for tolerance," and unfortunately this message kind of gets lost amidst the mainstream hype.

Of course, it is difficult to analyse literature without some paraphrasing and analyzing, especially if you take into account that this is a social commentary and people who might want to read it may not have read Harry Potter or had the slightest interest in doing so...I am sure that if my book ever makes it onto a book shelf, many of the people who might be drawn to it would pick it up because it has "Prejudice" in the title...marginalized people who feel targetted and oppressed in society, many of whom never had any interest in reading Harry Potter (my book would make them think twice about that). Also, before delving into my analysis, I had to identify the prejudice-related sublots and the magical creatures whom they concerned. After all, the whole thing is entitled "Prejudice in Harry Potter's World," so it would be fruitless for me to write this analysis without describing what comprises that world. But I am sure that all of my summaries, combined with the passages that I cite do not amount to 10%. Like I said, I only provide summaries in my introduction and the rest of this 300-pager is my literary analysis and social commentary on the wizarding world (whilst sort of comparing it to the real world).

Still, I am most thankful that Rowling herself has said that academic studies are "legitimate" because mine certainly does lean towards academia. One other thing: I used the APA format rather than the MLA because although my book is literary analysis, it has one foot firmly grounded in the social sciences: I found that many of the reference materials I was using (eg. Jane Sancho's article on representations of disability in the British media, Gordon Allport's "The Nature of Prejudice" & Rupert Brown's "Prejudice: Its Social Psychology") were social science texts. I don't think the format of referencing matters as long as references (citations, quotes, paraphrasing, etc.) are properly accredited to the author.

Thanks for all your remarks and advice.

Cheers.

Out of respect for the Leaky audience and JKR, I will not post the blog URL or any advertisements here. But if anyone wants to hear more about the study, please feel free to email me.

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Isnt this just an underhand way to advertise your book, you say you wont adverise here yet you state what the books about then how to get in contact about it, if that isnt advertising i dont know what is?

kabbymoh: the book sounds interesting but as everyone involved in publishing knows most books are lucky to sell a few hundred copies, which is one of the reasons why Jo Rowling was told "don't give up the day job."
The "Shame on you. You are trying to profit from JKR's success comment" somewhat misses the point of most people's criticism of the RDR/SVA book. No one objects to books that develop themes brought up by the HP series, or books that constitute analysis and commentary. It requires thought and a creative process. The objection is to works that just lift Jo Rowling's world from the page, rearrange it, and then attempt to profit by it. Particularly as the author knows that Jo Rowling objects to such a practise, and that he himself has previously professed that to do so is also in clear violation of her copyright.
In common parlance this is known as being rude to the author, stealing her work, being hypocritical, as well as possibly greedy; no such accusations could be made of your work, and Jo Rowling's agent has essentially confirmed that to you in writing.

touché Kreacher!...I haven't visited this thread in 4 or 5 days and I wanted to address everything David mentioned in his mail...Perhaps I got a bit carried away but I still did not post URLs to my blog or the publisher and it's not like the title is available in any bookshops or even on Amazon yet. In fact, it probably wont even surface if you type it into google and this thread will disappear into obscurity soon enough. So, cut me some slack, please. About 3 people contacted me before I posted my previous message, saying the topic sounded "interesting" and they wanted to hear more about it. Interestingly, none of them added any comments to the thread. So perhaps we are all a bit hesitant about showing interest or support in anything that threatens to profit from Rowling's work? I know I am...but I hardly think I'm gonna strike it rich from selling 5 books. I wrote this book mostly to express my thoughts about the series, which have been haunting me for years. So it doesn't really matter if it sells or not. I've been a member of Leaky for a while now...so, yes, I do respect the site.

roftang I agree with your whole post...the whole RDR thing surfaced at around the same time my book went to press and I got nervous because Rowling was quoted saying there would be "consequences" for other fans who wrote about her work in any way (I suppose internet sites with facts and fanfic etc. would be seriously impacted...but I still do not understand what that threat entailed). I started to wonder if academic studies would come under fire too. But as long as what the CL agency told me 4 years ago still stands, I am not really worried. Admittedly, the whole RDR mess could have been avoided had they just consented to put "Not authorized..." on the cover, which they refused to do. And I still cannot understand why they would not grant her this one wish. I don't think J.K. Rowling wants to stop them or any other writer from profiting from their HP-related creations; she just wants some acknowledgment that this is her original creation, not theirs. And if putting "Not authorized" on the cover is all that she's asking for, it seems pretty fair to me.

Well, I certainly didn't think you were advertising, kabbymoh. And, yes, I do think it sounds like a great topic for a book. I don't think JKR will be writing anything like it. Certainly not in a non-fiction format. I think it's great to highlight the themes of racism, sexism, homophobia, intolerance and elitism that pervade the books. Too often books and threads about HP focus on the ships or the adventure or the magic. But the themes of racial purity, the liberty of magical beings, and sexism run through the books. (I'm still annoyed with people who find Hermione's SPEW silly. Excessively earnest maybe, but never silly.)

I think you have all your bases covered. And I wouldn't worry about summarizing the books. It's the chapter by chapter summaries or the summary that gives everything away that are bound to offend. But a barebones summary that highlights the themes of purebloods, house-elfs, centaurs, giants and goblins, would probably do just fine. And, if there's one thing that one can learn from the RDR case, if they do object, they'll ask you to make changes first. Lawsuits only happen to those who don't answer their emails.

All the best.