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Hello, and thank you for visiting our site. If, perhaps you came here via a link posted in any of the following locations (there are others too):

http://register.co.uk/content/6/16295.html

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/eo/20010324/en/potter_fans_flame_warners_1.html

http://www.potterwar.org.uk/support/index.html

a bit of an explanation may be in order...

Warner Brothers, like any other media company, is completely dependent on it's control of abstract ideas that it has obtained ownership of via one method or another. It is legally obligated by laws in a number of countries to enforce it's trademarks and copyrights, if it wants to hold on to them (and, thus, be able to profit off them). As WB would be SOL without these, it tends to kick into action it's army of lawyers whenever it thinks it's holdings are in danger of falling into the public domain. All media companies are like this. It's not a WB thing. WB just happens to be the most recent bad boy in this. And they just happen to be going after fan sites, many of which were setup by childern. But again, this isn't unique (Paramount took similar action against Star Trek fan sites years ago). These people aren't trying to hurt WB. They just want to show their appreciation for what they feel are entertaining pieces of media. So what's the problem? The fans, who made Harry Potter et. al. as successful and popular as they are, get screwed over when they try to show their appreciation online. The solution? Hell if I know. I'm not a lawyer. Don't want to be one either. This is just a little rant.

Oh, and don't go off on that "This is more proof that IP is evil" rant. The content creators (artists, musicians, writers, etc.) have as much right to earn a living off their work as anybody else. And in a glorious pseudo-capitalist country like the US, that means they have the right to earn as much money as they can off their works.

(translated into 133+ here)

-- wos

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