Court Dismisses Harry Potter Plagiarism Case: 'Strains Credulity'

from the there-can-be-only-one dept

There have been a whole bunch of claims from authors of random books about wizards that JK Rowling "stole" the idea for Harry Potter from them. This happens all the time with super successful books. Half the time I think it's really just an attempt by the authors of the other books to get some free publicity. In one of the cases, from the estate of an author who wrote a book called Willy the Wizard, the similarities seemed extremely remote, and now a judge has agreed, and dismissed the case. The judge noted the lack of any actual copying:

"The contrast between the total concept and feel of the works is so stark that any serious comparison of the two strains credulity,"

The judge also noted that the two works were "distinctly different in both substance and style." Of course, this still won't stop claims from others. Because no one could have possibly thought up a story of a boy wizard without first having "stolen" it from someone else...

Filed Under: harry potter, jk rowling, willy the wizard