Warner Bedevils Young Harry Potter Fans.SOMETIMES in fairy tales This is a list of fairy tales, the dates of their earliest known printed version, the author and, if known, the collection of tales in which it was published. It should be noted, however, that not all stories listed below would be categorized as fairy tales by a strict definition , when the wicked witch wants to be really wicked, she makes her victim huge, monstrously mon·strous adj. 1. Shockingly hideous or frightful. 2. Exceptionally large; enormous: a monstrous tidal wave. 3. big, banging into everything. Could such dark forces be at work on everyone's favorite mini-wizard, Harry Potter? We already know that Potter, the boy hero created by author J.K. Rowling, is big, literarily speaking. Counting all the Harry books sold would be only slightly less impossible than finding a child who hasn't read one. But until now, the grand scale has been grand because it was all about books. We are proud of books. We are proud when our kids read them. Growth on that scale has been a good thing, right? But no good thing stays good for long once Hollywood gets involved. The film industry opens its suitcases of money, buys a story, then acts as if it owns the idea, the outline, the words, even the shadow. So it was that in the last few months, children around the world began getting threatening letters (Law) letters containing threats, especially those designed to extort money, or to obtain other property, by menaces; blackmailing letters. See also: Threatening from Warner Bros BROS Brothers BROS Benefits and Retirement Operations Section (King County, Washington) BROS Barnes and Richmond Operatic Society (London, UK) ., the company that purchased the film and merchandising rights to Harry Potter. The letters concerned Harry-oriented Web sites. Many were nothing more than fan sites: preteens and teenagers posting their favorite stories, their predictions for future Potter stories -- even, ironically, news about the upcoming movie. One such site was constructed by a 15-year-old girl in Singapore. Two others by a 15-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy in England. They all got similar letters, which can be summed up this way: Your Web site name? We own it. Give it to us, or we will come after you with lawyers. Welcome to Adultville, kids. Never mind that Warner Bros. will reap massive profits on the film when it comes out this fall. (It's about as sure a thing as buying Microsoft in 1980.) And never mind that Warner will see a hailstorm See .NET My Services. of profit from every imaginable i·mag·i·na·ble adj. Conceivable in the imagination: imaginable exploits. i·mag type of merchandise: dolls, board games This is a list of board games. This page classifies board games according to the concerns which might be uppermost for someone organizing a gaming event or party. See the article on game classification for other alternatives, or see for a list of board game articles. , costumes, magic potion po·tion n. A liquid medicinal dose or drink. potion a large dose of liquid medicine. kits, even plastic broomsticks. Never mind. Enough is never enough for big corporations like Warner. After all, they have to justify all those lawyers they have on retainer A contract between attorney and client specifying the nature of the services to be rendered and the cost of the services. Retainer also denotes the fee that the client pays when employing an attorney to act on her behalf. . So now they want all the Web sites in the world that could possibly be about Harry Potter. They own his shadow, after all. And previously innocent teens get threatening letters from lawyers demanding the return of Web site names such as harry-potterguide.co.uk and www.HarryPotterNetwork.net and HogwartsOnline.net. Here is part of that Warner Bros. letter: "(We) are concerned that your domain name registration is likely to cause consumer confusion and dilution of the intellectual property rights." Translation: "We don't want consumers confused by anything unless it's by our products. And you don't get to dilute Harry Potter -- only we get to dilute Harry Potter!" Some children were so shaken by these legal threats that their parents jumped to their defense. A young woman from Virginia and another from London have teamed up to boycott Harry Potter merchandise. They organized www.potterwar.org.uk. Potter War? "We are urging all Harry Potter fans to spend their money elsewhere... Meanwhile, Rowling, the author, has been silent. That's not smart, since she is listed in the letter as a threatening force. Which is it, J.K? For kids, or for their pocketbooks? Ah well. Such is the devil's dance in Hollywood. Warner Bros. claims it didn't mean to harass harass (either harris or huh-rass) v. systematic and/or continual unwanted and annoying pestering, which often includes threats and demands. This can include lewd or offensive remarks, sexual advances, threatening telephone calls from collection agencies, hassling by anyone with the letter -- but it didn't take back its request. And kids around the globe are getting a new education, not about spells and potions, but about greed. Poor Harry. Has he fallen under a witch's curse, grown too big for his own good, become a monster that would crush the small, innocent masses that made him a superstar? Holy Toledo! No wait. That's from "Batman and Robin." I'm not allowed to use that, either. Mitch Albom Mitchell David Albom (born May 23, 1958 in Passaic, New Jersey) is a U.S. novelist and newspaper columnist for the Detroit Free Press, radio host, and TV commentator. He is a graduate of Akiba Hebrew Academy, Brandeis University, and Columbia University. is the author of the best seller "Tuesdays With Morrie." |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion