feedback.

hi there! please leave some feedback!

JK Rowling Accused of Plagiarism

My group chose to discuss the topic of JK Rowling being accused of Plagiarism in 2010.


http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2010/0218/J.K.-Rowling-faces-another-plagiarism-suit

The aspect I am going to discuss is the connections between JK Rowling and the man who accused her, Adrian Jacobs. In 1987, Jacobs wrote a book called "The Adventures of Willy the Wizard: No. 1 Livid Land." He claims that there are many similarities between his book and JK Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire." Obviously, because Jacobs’ book was written in 1987, he could accuse Rowling of plagiarism and not vice versa. Now, off the bat, this case seems questionable. Wizards and magic have been favored literary topics for centuries. Jacobs cannot go and say that Rowling copied him by having her main character be a young wizard. However, there are some connections between the two authors, Jacobs and Rowling that do make this case look suspicious.  Rowling’s agent, Christopher Little, was once Jacob’s agent.  Rowling has been quoted of using authors such as Chaucer, Shakespeare and C. S. Lewis as inspirations, yet claims to have never read Jacobs book.  But how can we be certain that Rowling didn’t subconsciously use ideas from her inspirations, and possibly other authors, such as Jacobs.  We cannot be certain.  Lauren Barack, a writer for the Library Journal, has stated, “they do mirror many archetypes and story arcs found in popular tales."  With these connections in mind,  it is probably best to check out this accusation to see if it is in fact true.

J.K. Rowling's Plagiarism-the case/trial

Again in October of 2010, J.K. Rowling was accused of plagiarism in her renowned and famous books "Harry Potter." According to representatives of Adrian Jacobs, Rowling had copied his 16-page book in "Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire." According to sources, both books have manys similarities. Jacobs wrote a book about wizards, their secret schools, special wizarding places, magic powders as travel mechanicisms, and games on magical trains. In the "Goblet of Fire," Rowling has used many of these places or objects to write her book. She claims that her storyline is original but readers and other sources can see the similarites in both books. Rowling's case is to go to trial in 2011. The media expects it to be a "billio" dollar case with lots of public media and dispute.


Source: http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2010/10/18/plagiarism-suit-harry-potter-author-jk-rowling-allowed-proceed/

J.K. Rowling

Our group is talking about how J.K. Rowling was charged with plagiarism. She was charged by the children's author Adrian Jacobs.He claimed that she had stolen his ideas and placed them in her book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of fire, which came out in 2000. She "stole" ideas such as wizard contests, prisons, hospitals, and colleges. We do not really know if it was Rowling's intention to "plagiarize" but if it was, she not once cited other authors. This is where maybe other authors got the idea that she stole their work. but in essence she used her own ideas. Rowling is known to be one of the famous/wealthiest authors these days, which is why some people might want to put law suits on her. But she has recently won her suits.

What I think about J.K. Rowling

I think that the articles bring up many good points. It is hard to prove that she had plagiarized because in many cases you cannot say whether or not she even read the other stories or not. Also the article tells how the United States has the "fair use" policy which is something that a lot of people don't know about. To be completely honest I think that anyone that is successful gets picked on and when people know you are loaded they will try to take everything away from you. Many people sue now a days because they think they have a chance to get some wealth out of it. I think that if J.K. Rowling were to at least say what her inspirations were more people would get off her back. Because she does not say her inspirations many people think there is no way she just made up the wizard ideas, etc. on her own. Overall I think that J.K. Rowling does not plagiarize it is just people trying to be greedy.

JK Rowling accused of plagiarism

This article shows how J.K. Rowling was accused of plagiarizing on two accounts. One she was accused of copying the character Harry Potter from a character by the author Stouffer named "Larry Potter." It tells that she was also accused of copying concepts of wizards, wizard colleges, wizard hospitals, etc. from the author Jacobs. He claims that the story "Goblet of Fire" uses his ideas from "The Adventures of Willy the Wizard: No. 1 Livid Land." J.K. Rowling was not charged with plagiarism in either case. It has been noted however, that Rowling has never cited a single authors works as her inspiration for Harry Potter. The article also tells that there is a difference between copying and fair use. This is important because if there was no such thing as fair use every single little thing would have to be quoted and it would "restrict creativity."

Kehe, Marjorie. "J.K. Rowling Faces Another Plagiarism Suit - CSMonitor.com." The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com. The Christian Science Monitor, 8 Feb. 2010. Web. 06 Oct. 2011. .

Tuesday's Reflection

On Tuesday’s class period, I learned that although we didn’t use computers, we managed to be effective in our work and get a rough draft of our story book done. By allowing us time in class to work together, I believe that we were able to express our ideas and opinions to each other. For project one, we didn’t get much time in class to work together and it resulted in a lot of confusion and questions. Also on project one we didn’t quite understand the concept of the project and what we were supposed to do. But I believe now that we have an understanding of how to use a blog and the concept of project 2, we are better prepared to start and turn in our project.
On Tuesday, we each took turns expressing how we imagine the project and what our goals for the project are. Once we found a common ground, we chose our main target of audience as families because “Finding Nemo” was a loveable Disney classic that showed a father’s love for his son. By targeting families again with this project, we can give them another classic story, with a twist. We also show our visual aid to be a story book. We want this book to represent a children’s book, with vibrant pictures and colors. We want parents to be able to read this to their children and have the kids fall in love with the new story and its twist.
As a group, we have delegated who will be contributing what part to this project. We have also decided to each work on a page or two for the story book. Although the drawings will be different, we will keep the same storyline and give everyone a chance to put their own artist touch on this book. By doing this, we are all involved in the making of the book and after discussing our ideas, we have all come up with a good storyline for the book.
I believe that our group will be productive, effective and will work well with each other. I am looking forward to working with them and creating our new story book.