McCanb backer JK Rowling accused of plagiarism

JK Rowling has been named in a lawsuit claiming she stole ideas for her wildly popular and lucrative Harry Potter books from another British author. Skip related content

The estate of the late Adrian Jacobs added Rowling as a defendant in a lawsuit it filed in June against Bloomsbury Publishing for alleged copyright infringement, according to a statement by the estate's representatives, who are based in Australia.

The lawsuit, filed in a London court, claims Edinburgh-based Rowling's book Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire copied substantial parts of Jacobs' 1987 book, The Adventures Of Willy The Wizard - No 1 Livid Land.

Jacobs' estate also claims that many other ideas from Willy The Wizard were copied into the Harry Potter books. Jacobs died in London in 1997.

Harry Potter And The Goblet of Fire is the fourth book in Rowling's series and was published in July 2000.

Sydney agent Max Markson, who is representing the trustee of Jacobs' estate, Paul Allen, said Rowling was added to the lawsuit after Mr Allen learned that the statute of limitations to sue her had not run out, as previously believed.

"I estimate it's a billion-dollar case," said Mr Markson. "That'll be the decision of the courts, obviously."

There was no immediate comment from Rowling.

In June, Bloomsbury said the allegation that she had copied from Jacobs' work was "unfounded, unsubstantiated and untrue".

Bloomsbury said Jacobs' estate first approached the company in 2004 with its claims, but was unable to identify any text in the Harry Potter books that was copied from Willy The Wizard. Mr Allen said the estate was also seeking legal advice on whether the Harry Potter films and soon-to-be-opened Harry Potter theme park breached copyright law.


oh dear..................... if this is true no wonder she supported the mcanns once a liar always a liar?

You have to wonder if the next harry potter book is going to feature vampires and vultures as the main theme, the lead character being a wizened strange golam type female dwarf?????

When Rowling's first book came out there was another accusation of plagiarism from a different author, whose work was shown to be very similar, even down to the name of the wizard, and to pre-date Rowling's book. That case just disappeared and I wondered if the other author had been paid off. Seems like Rowling may have sourced her material directly from a couple of little-known authors.

AnnaEsse wrote:When Rowling's first book came out there was another accusation of plagiarism from a different author, whose work was shown to be very similar, even down to the name of the wizard, and to pre-date Rowling's book. That case just disappeared and I wondered if the other author had been paid off. Seems like Rowling may have sourced her material directly from a couple of little-known authors.

so if this is true then the money she gave the mcanns was fraud too/

Oh dear! Dodgy detectives, disreputable libel lawyers and a possibly plagiarist backer! What next? All their friends declared liars by a Portuguese court?

AnnaEsse wrote:Oh dear! Dodgy detectives, disreputable libel lawyers and a possibly plagiarist backer! What next? All their friends declared liars by a Portuguese court?

hmmmmm they are not too good on picking the right backers are they

I'm a Tolkien reader and although i've never read any of Rowlings books i've seen odd clips from the films and some of her ideas smack as being taken from some of Tolkiens work.

vengefulangel wrote:You have to wonder if the next harry potter book is going to feature vampires and vultures as the main theme, the lead character being a wizened strange golam type female dwarf?????

Didn't know Aunty Phil had been cast in the role.

ali1966 wrote:

vengefulangel wrote:You have to wonder if the next harry potter book is going to feature vampires and vultures as the main theme, the lead character being a wizened strange golam type female dwarf?????

Didn't know Aunty Phil had been cast in the role.

Pity a golam type male would be better uncle Johns a dead ringer for the part.

how very true

Yep, I can just see Uncle John salivating over "my precious" fund money.

I have looked at this case and the book Adrian Jacobs wrote called The adventures of Willy the Wizard. see http://www.willythewizard.com/

Extract from website;

Adrian Jacobs’ work “The Adventures of Willy The Wizard” was well received when it was sent around in manuscript form by his literary agent to potential publishers in 1987.

Publishers were enthusiastic about his ideas, including:

i. The Year of Wizards’ Contests - the central theme of The Adventures of Willy the Wizard
ii. stories and reminiscences of wizards college
iii. parallel worlds of real places and wizard magic
iv. wizard trains where Wizard Chess is played
v. the theme of alcohol brewing villages
vi. gambling wizards
vii. wizards prison
viii. wizards needing to earn money
ix. the central character of an empowered child wizard
x. Wizard special Hospitals

However his literary agent advised him that the work needed some re-writing and was densely packed with themes and ideas that needed expansion and development.

Adrian Jacobs was impatient to publish and not wishing to re-write , Adrian commissioned an illustrator- Nick Tidnam RBA and retained him to illustrate the manuscript. Cecil Turner of Bachman Turner published the book in October 1987. Some 5000 copies were printed. Adrian sent a large number of copies of the highly colourful finished book to his literary agent. Adrian Jacobs visited several schools and read extracts from AWTW. The book was reviewed in papers including the Daily Express.

If you read the extracts from the book on the website Adrian does not have the accomplished writing skills of J K Rowlings. I see similarities but the unique inventions and fantasy of the Harry Potter books are absent from Adrian's text.

Any author is obviously influenced by the environment, every book they have read, TV & Film, zeitgeists and current themes etc. Similarities must occur. How many stories can you find that have Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet theme running through them?

If you have a multi-million dollar business you can bet that somebody will shout plagarism and try to gain a piece of the pie rightly or wrongly and try to settle out of court.

IMO we should all give J K Rowlands the benefit of the doubt in this instance. She has brought hours of happiness both to my children, and I am sure, millions more children all over the world.

Hopefully this will stop J.K Rowling from writing any more books. Harry Potter has been done to death and has outstayed his welcome.
A bit like the McCann's lies really.

eddie wrote:Hopefully this will stop J.K Rowling from writing any more books. Harry Potter has been done to death and has outstayed his welcome.
A bit like the McCann's lies really.

Perhaps her next novel will be: "Kate and Gerry in Perdition"

Have you heard??
J.K Rowling has re-written all of her original titles of the Harry Potter series of books and made them into The McCann Tales....

Here are the original Harry Potter titles and the translations:

Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone - becomes - The McCanns and the Unturned Stones
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - becomes - The McCanns and the Apartment of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - becomes - The McClarence and the Big Gob for Hire
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - becomes - The McCanns and the Half-Baked Spins
Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows - becomes - Eggman in the Swarthy Shadows
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - becomes - The McCanns and Dinner with the Tapas Clan


Sorry, couldn't resist!

eddie wrote:Have you heard??
J.K Rowling has re-written all of her original titles of the Harry Potter series of books and made them into The McCann Tales....

Here are the original Harry Potter titles and the translations:

Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone - becomes - The McCanns and the Unturned Stones
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - becomes - The McCanns and the Apartment of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - becomes - The McClarence and the Big Gob for Hire
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - becomes - The McCanns and the Half-Baked Spins
Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows - becomes - Eggman in the Swarthy Shadows
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - becomes - The McCanns and Dinner with the Tapas Clan


Sorry, couldn't resist!

brilliant!

good : :

I was thinking more of Clarry Rotter the Gobshite For Hire.