LISNews: Librarian News

The New York Times continues the sad saga of J. K. Rowling v. The Lexicon of Harry.

Read it and weep. Steven Jan Vander Ark did, and Rowling came close.

Okay, so it's not Friday and I'll not post this under the Friday Funnies topic. Besides, there's nothing funny about J. K. Rowling suffering a "wardrobe malfunction" at some kind of red carpet extravaganza because she wore a dress with a low neckline which was utterly incapable of containing her breasts.

It's also not funny that her agent gallantly leapt into action to protect the modesty of a woman who is far richer than the queen of her country. And it's not funny that he did so by valiantly grabbing and, um, manually containing the (ahem) offending breast.

It's not funny.

It's hilarious.

Shall we schadenfreude? (pictures are SFW)

J. K. Rowling's really getting down to business now; she's even trademarked the names "Harry" and "Potter":

From Shelf-Awareness (scroll down): "Lawyers for J.K. Rowling have indicated in public filings that the author of the Harry Potter series has directed them to use their "full powers" to protect the reading experience of fans of her iconic work.

To that end, legal staff are continuing the suit against RDR Books over the Harry Potter Lexicon and will remain vigilant in opposing in court any other similar infringement on Rowling's intellectual property.

More strikingly, in an additional new move, the lawyers have copyrighted and trademarked the words "Harry" and "Potter" and will protect those brands. In a statement, the author said, "Muggles everywhere should be happy that I have been so restrained. Some thought I should protect every word I wrote in the seven Harry Potter volumes." Check out all of today's reportage from Shelf-Awareness, and have a good one.

Purchased, donated --or--stolen from the library?

March 19 Bloomberg News reports that Christie's International raised 36,560 pounds ($73,000), with fees, at a London sale of 20 lots of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books, including a rare first edition of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.''

The Potter action at Christie's South Kensington salesroom surpassed a low presale estimate of 20,000 pounds without fees.

It also raised questions about Christie's controls after the London-based auction house confirmed that it didn't check whether the first edition, which sold for 4,000 pounds including fees, might have been stolen from the Northamptonshire Libraries & Information Service, whose label appears on the volume.