Opening arguments were heard and J. K Rowling took the stand this morning at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse in Downtown Manhattan today. Warner Bros and Rowling Counsel asserted that ADR’s Harry Potter Lexicon violated Rowlings intellectual property and was infringement of copyright law while ADR defense upheld that the Lexicon is a scholarly reference and is protected by free use.
When Rowling took the stand, she admitted to being nervous. She explained passionately that the Lexicon “constitutes wholesale theft of seventeen years of hard work” and that it “debases what I worked so hard to create.” In an attempt to establish the mega-millionaire Rowling as sympathetic, her lawyer focused on her hard past, living on the dole and raising a child by herself. Rowling admitted that during this time “there were weeks when the food ran out.” When her lawyer asked: “what does Harry Potter mean to you?” Rowling began to cry, apologizing that “I really don’t want to cry because I’m British,” she then she said something about “setting aside my children and everything,” before the grief became too great and she took a short break to drink some water.
more as the story develops