Did JK Rowling steal her ideas from another author???

[Spawn of Sephiroth]

JK Rowlings sued for Plagiarism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Stouffer)

Ok, I know the lawsuit happened about 5 years ago, but I found this and I thought it was interesting. And first and formost, I am totally on JK's side but this is too many coincidences and too many same names and terms. But does anyone see this as funny. I know its old news to many, but I saw it and thought it might make for a decent conversation. Read the Comparison's of Book and Charactor section and tell me what you think.

[Garnie]

the links broken :(

[LunarWeaver]

She has gotten heat for doing nothing but making a big conglomeration of stolen ideas in many reviews of her books, too. But everybody steals ideas from everybody. Quentin Tarantino has made some of the most iconic and famous films in history, when really most of his stuff just comes from other movies with the word "homage" tossed on it.

It's what everybody does, so whatevva *shrug* Look at the gaming industry and tell me how many people should be sued for blatantly copying off the formula of others. The answer is a lot. The important thing is refining the concepts into something that feels like your own, making it original in its own kind of way. I think Rowling did that, and now her books will be the copied instead of the copier.

[Fonzie]

She sued the woman back, as I recall.

[Rye]

Hey, she stole her ideas about magical creatures, but so does pretty much everyone else from old folklore and such, but she makes it work and she definitely put her own spin on it. So I think she's pretty original.

[Araciel]

of course she did. she stole the whole thing from me. i was like 7 and she gave me candy and took my paper and pencil crayons away.

[Spawn of Sephiroth]

the links broken :(

Sorry. The link is fixed now.

[Quindiana Jones]

The only similarity that I would consider plageurism is the name Larry Potter. And they weren't even sure his surname was Potter. And I suppose Muggles. But meh. 1.

The Nimbus lark was a loada rubbish. I suspect Rowling just thought "oooh cloud" and liked it. Nowt to do with nicking it. I may as well accuse her of stealing my use of the word "and".

[Del Murder]

Everything has already been done. Anything anyone does now is stealing from something else.

[NeoCracker]

Shouldn't this person who sued J.K. Also be sued for stealing Nimus from DB's Flying Nimbus?

Or should the makers of DB be sued?

Wonder which was first.

[Mirage]

Everyone takes inspiration from elsewhere. As long as it's not directly copying someone else, I see no problem.

[Jessweeee♪]

Nah...the names Potter and Harry aren't that uncommon, and the whole back hair/glasses combo isn't either. I know dozens of characters with black messy hair that wear glasses. The words Nimbus and Neville aren't owned by her. As the article stated Neville is a common name and Nimbus is Latin for cloud. The only thing left unexplained is the muggle thing...maybe she'd read a book and the word just stuck in the back of her head, or maybe it's just a coincidence...muggle...fun to say...A Muggle mugged me for my M&Ms

[Ender]

Well, I'm not a lawyer, but in my book copyright infringement (which if anything, is what this was) is not the same as plagiarism.

stealing names << stealing storyline 'ideas' and/or actual sentences from another work

(or maybe it should be >> ??, you get my point though, it's not as big stealing names)

Writers are inspired by all sorts of things. In fact, I'm sure many writers (and I include myself as an 'amateur' fan-fic author who encounters this often) come up with proper names they think are original only to realize later that they were sitting in the back of their mind from reading it somewhere else.

And that doesn't even include characters or places who are homages or satires of those in another literary works, or names considered to be "public domain."

As far as ideas go, literary templates and archetypes are used freely. In the case of fantasy, the unlikely 'hero of prophecy' from an orphaned or meager upbringing wielding a weapon of power (overwhelming "love" in Harry's case) against a villain obsessed with transcending death or amassing phenomenal powers is about as standard as you can get. As long as an author fills in the details with original material, there's no reason to get all in a tizzy over it IMO.

[CimminyCricket]

Goku and the flying Nimbus cloud as well as the staff that Goku uses are from a Chinese legend of some sort. Nimbus is also a type of cloud.

[rubah]

RE: Nimbus;

JKR likes to use names that are entymologically appropriate a lot.

Apparently this case really hurt nancy stouffer's feelings. her website was full of centered script font and animated GIFs, but I haven't looked there lately.

[Bunny]

Everything has already been done. Anything anyone does now is stealing from something else.

That is not true. I have yet to see a book about a giant lizard sorcerer fighting to rescue his white tiger princess love from the clutches of the lethal rath-gal, which are a race of kitten swordsmen.

[Quindiana Jones]

That is not true. I have yet to see a book about a giant lizard sorcerer fighting to rescue his white tiger princess love from the clutches of the lethal rath-gal, which are a race of kitten swordsmen.


Why the hell hasn't that been written yet?

[Bunny]

I was in the process of doing so but then got tired of thinking, so it ended up being a Star Wars fanfic but with animals instead of people. (Wookies are otters and Chewbacca is a giant turtle)

[Jessweeee♪]

Everything has already been done. Anything anyone does now is stealing from something else.

That is not true. I have yet to see a book about a giant lizard sorcerer fighting to rescue his white tiger princess love from the clutches of the lethal rath-gal, which are a race of kitten swordsmen.

That sounds familiar, actually O_O

[Quindiana Jones]

I was in the process of doing so but then got tired of thinking, so it ended up being a Star Wars fanfic but with animals instead of people. (Wookies are otters and Chewbacca is a giant turtle)

Why the hell haven't I read that?

[Shoeberto]

The estate of Tolkien could probably sue every fantasy writer to produce any novel after the release of the Lord of the Rings novels.

[Værn]

In September 2002, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York found not only that Rowling did not plagiarise the Muggle characters, but also that Stouffer had lied to the court and doctored evidence to support her claims. Judge Allen G. Schwartz fined Stouffer $50,000 United States dollars for this "pattern of intentional bad faith conduct." Stouffer was also ordered to pay a portion of the plaintiff's attorney's fees.
Rofl, pwned. Meow =^_^=

[Del Murder]

Everything has already been done. Anything anyone does now is stealing from something else.

That is not true. I have yet to see a book about a giant lizard sorcerer fighting to rescue his white tiger princess love from the clutches of the lethal rath-gal, which are a race of kitten swordsmen.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Harry Potter, Thundercats, Super Mario Brothers, Shrek 2.

[Resha]

The estate of Tolkien could probably sue every fantasy writer to produce any novel after the release of the Lord of the Rings novels.

Absolutely. There isn't a single fantasy-genre author I've read who doesn't steal some aspect of LoTR; the Mountain of Doom in Robert Jordan's much-loved Wheel of Time series, from Terry Goodkind's "Wizard's First Rule", in the Shannara series by Terry Brooks.

JK Rowling is hugely guilty of this too :p giant spiders in "Chamber of Secrets"; Shelob, anyone? The idea of a "Dark Lord"?

[Shoeberto]

JK Rowling is hugely guilty of this too :p giant spiders in "Chamber of Secrets"; Shelob, anyone? The idea of a "Dark Lord"?
Dementors.

[Captain Maxx Power]

This is the reason why most of my writing is based on my crazy-ass dreams. :cool:

[Værn]

This is the reason why most of my writing is based on my crazy-ass dreams. :cool:
My friend says that if you want some really freaky dreams you should eat a spoonful of sauerkraut before going to bed. Try it, see if it works for you =^_^=

[Bunny]

The estate of Tolkien could probably sue every fantasy writer to produce any novel after the release of the Lord of the Rings novels.

No court would hear any case of that nature.

[Vincent, Thunder God]

Read "Comparison of Book and Characters"and then "Outcome of Court Case." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Stouffer) That pretty much says it all.