The Celebrity Truth

A Harry Potter fan who is attempting to publish an unauthorised encyclopedic guide to the popular fantasy series broke down in court on Tuesday, crying on the witness stand as he faced his idol, JK Rowling, in federal court.

Rowling has sued Steven Vander Ark’s publisher, RDR Books, claiming that their Harry Potter Lexicon – based on Vander Ark’s fan website – infringed on her copyright. His publishing company, RDR Books, is up against Rowling and Warner Bros, the maker of the Harry Potter films and owner of all the intellectual property related to the Potter books and movies.

Vander Ark testified on the second day of the trial in US District Court in Manhattan. When he was asked to reflect on what the case has done to his relationship with the community of Harry Potter fans, Vander Ark wiped away tears and struggled to talk.

"It’s been… it’s been – it’s been difficult, because there has been a lot of criticism, obviously, and that was never the intention… This has been an important part of my life for the last nine years or so," he said.

The former middle school librarian says he fell in love with the books in the late 1990s, and has devoted years to studying them and indexing their content online. During his testimony, Vander Ark acknowledged that he also had concerns that publishing an encyclopedia based on Rowling’s Potter series would infringe on copyright laws, but said he was talked into it by the publishing company.

Rowling testified yesterday that the Harry Potter characters she created are dear to her, and that the encyclopedia is "sloppy, lazy" and "constitutes wholesale theft of 17 years of my hard work". The British author said she had recently started work on her own encyclopedia, but does not expect to complete it for two to three years, and added that if Vander Ark’s lexicon is published, "I’m not at all convinced that I would have the will or the heart to continue with my encyclopedia."

In his opening statement, RDR lawyer Anthony Falzone defended the lexicon as a reference guide, calling it a legitimate effort "to organise and discuss the complicated and very elaborate world of Harry Potter". The small publisher is not contesting that the lexicon infringes upon Rowling’s copyright, but argues that it is a fair use allowable by law for reference books.

The nonjury trial will be decided by US District Judge Robert Patterson Jr, who must determine whether the use of the material is legal because Vander Ark added his own interpretation, creativity and analysis. The testimony and arguments is expected to last most of the week.

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Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.