The 'Business Section' of Saturday's New York Times included an article by Joe Nocera about a lawsuit brought by Warner Bros. Entertainment and J.K. Rowling against RDR Books, a small publisher from Muskegon, Michigan that announced plans to publish a book by Steven Vander Ark who maintains the Harry Potter Lexicon Website.  Neither Warners nor Rowling had any trouble with Vander Ark as long as he posted his essays and examinations of Harry Potter terminology for free on his Website, but RDR announced plans to publish some of the material from the Website on a for profit basis, the entertainment giant filed suit against the tiny publishing house.  The Stanford Law School's Fair Use Project, which was founded by Lawrence Lessig, is aiding in the defense of RDR Books.

Rowling says that she has plans of her own to publish a Harry Potter Encyclopedia and give the money to charity, but however laudable her objectives might be, her lawsuit seeks to reverse decades of the 'fair use' doctrine, which allowed for the publication of companion books or 'unofficial guides' that were based on someone else's intellectual property, but were more than just a rehash of the original.  Certainly most pop culture retailers have sold such volumes.  What Warner Bros. and Rowling are seeking is an expansion of copyright powers in a way which, in the opinion of The Times' Nocera, will 'choke creativity' rather than protect it, which is the purpose of providing copyright protection in the first place. 

If Warner Bros. and Rowling succeed in their suit, it could have a chilling effect on a number of pop culture categories by putting in legal jeopardy various kinds of 'companion' books including episode-guides, histories, how-to volumes, 'encyclopedias' and collections of essays based on movies, TV shows, video games, CCGs, and comics.