{"id":4358,"date":"2008-04-23T03:31:28","date_gmt":"2008-04-23T10:51:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2008\/04\/23\/question-overruled-on-account-of-being-preposterous\/"},"modified":"2008-04-23T03:31:28","modified_gmt":"2008-04-23T10:51:16","slug":"question-overruled-on-account-of-being-preposterous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=4358","title":{"rendered":"Question Overruled Due To Being Preposterous"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Previously on&#8230;&#8221; from the <em>New York Times<\/em>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Ms. Rowling and Warner Brothers Entertainment [&#8230;] are suing Mr. Vander Ark\u2019s publisher, RDR Books, based in Michigan, to stop publication of the Harry Potter Lexicon. Ms. Rowling contends in the lawsuit that the lexicon copies large chunks of material from her own books while adding little new information and insight.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>From the questioning of Vander Ark:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>PLAINTIFF&#8217;S ATTORNEY:  So isn&#8217;t it true that you&#8217;re not limiting sales of the Lexicon to people who read all seven Harry Potter books, right?<\/p>\n<p>DEFENSE ATTORNEY:  Your Honor, that&#8217;s a preposterous question.<\/p>\n<p>THE COURT:  Objection sustained.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Damn, I wish that questions could have been blocked due to being preposterous at the most recent Obama\/Clinton debate.<\/p>\n<p>(Links to trial transcripts <a href=\"http:\/\/cyberlaw.stanford.edu\/node\/5748#attachments\">here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p>* * *<\/p>\n<p>That aside, the heart of the issue is gotten at in a pre-lawsuit letter sent by Rowling&#8217;s lawyers to the Lexicon folks:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The book purports to contain an alphabetical glossary of fictional facts from the Potter books, presumably with little or no independent analysis or commentary, e.g. hundreds of alphabetically arranged entries on Rowling&#8217;s characters, themes, settings, motifs, spells, positions, etc.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Although I&#8217;m a fan of the Potter books, I think Rowling should lose her lawsuit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Previously on&#8230;&#8221; from the New York Times: Ms. Rowling and Warner Brothers Entertainment [&#8230;] are suing Mr. Vander Ark\u2019s publisher, RDR Books, based in Michigan, to stop publication of the Harry Potter Lexicon. Ms. Rowling contends in the lawsuit that &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=4358\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-free-speech-censorship-copyright-law-etc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4358\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}