March 22 2000 UNITED STATES
Battle for Muggles hots up
FROM JAMES BONE IN NEW YORK
THE mystery of the Muggles deepened yesterday when a third children's author said she had invented the name.
Carol Kendall, author of The Minnipins, published in 1959, came forward after hearing of the legal battle in America over the ownership of the Muggles name between Nancy Stouffer, the author of The Legend of Rah and the Muggles, published in 1959, and J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series.
Callie Kendall, Mrs Kendall's daughter, said: "Muggles is one of the major characters [in The Minnipins].
"It's funny to see someone taking someone else to court when my mother used that name. We are not the kind of family that goes around suing people, but it's annoying."
Mrs Kendall, 82, also had a dispute with Roald Dahl over his book The Minpins, which she said was too similar to The Minnipins. No legal action was taken.
Plagiarism suit filed against Harry Potter author
THE ARTS REPORT - CBC Radio
CAMP HILL, Penn. - An author in the United States is suing J.K. Rowling, the writer of Harry Potter children's books. Nancy K. Stouffer of Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, says Rowling stole her plots and characters.
J.K. Rowling's three books about Harry Potter, a young orphaned wizard, have sold 19 million copies in the United States; a fourth is due for release in July. Rowling has become a cult figure in her own right and a movie based on the first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is in the works.
Stouffer argues in her federal lawsuit that ideas for the Potter series were lifted from her currently out-of-print stories for children, among them The Legend of Rah and Rah and The Muggles. The books include a character named Larry Potter.
Scholastic, Rowling's publisher, and Time Warner who have the film rights, filed their own lawsuit in November in New York, asking a judge to rule that the Harry Potter books do not violate Stouffer's trademark and copyright.
That suit was filed after attempts by Stouffer to negotiate an out-of-court settlement apparently failed.
Judy Corman, a spokesperson for Scholastic, says Stouffer's claims are completely meritless.
'Harry' Situation
Harry Potter will go to court. Plus, another Oscar screwup, Mariah Carey, Steven Bochco, Scott Speedman, and more
by Josh Wolk
LAWSUIT, PART 1 Children's-book writer Nancy K. Stouffer has filed a lawsuit against Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, claiming that Rowling stole characters and plots from Stouffer's own 1984 book, ''The Legend of Rah and Muggles,'' according to the Associated Press. In her book, Stouffer has a character named Larry Potter, as well as a Lilly Potter (Rowling has a Lily Potter), and features ''muggles,'' who are little people who look after two orphans, and she claims she copyrighted the term. In the Harry Potter books, Rowling uses ''muggles'' as a wizards' term for humans.
Last year Stouffer tried to get Rowling, her publisher, Scholastic, and Time Warner (which owns the movie rights -- and is the parent company of Entertainment Weekly) to settle out of court. The companies instead asked a judge to rule that there were no similarites between the books, and that they haven't violated her copyright. Now that Stouffer has filed suit, a Scholastic spokesperson, who calls the claims ''completely meritless,'' says, ''Unfortunately, success often leads to frivolous claims, and we're confident the court will find in our favor.''
Friday, 17 March, 2000, 05:15 GMT
Harry Potter books 'plagiarised'
An American author is claiming damages from the writer and publishers of the hugely successful Harry Potter books, which she says plagiarised her own work.
Nancy Stouffer, of Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, argues in her federal lawsuit that ideas for the Potter series were lifted from a book she wrote in 1984.
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