AOL Time Warner's legal rottweilers are aggressively prosecuting Harry Potter-inspired books, from unauthorised fiction using the characters to thematically similar work like Tanya Grotter and the Magic Double-Bass. They have been allowed to do this by recent expansions of intellectual property treaties, which crack down on derived works. Or, another way to think about it: had the treaties been in place decades ago, J.R.R. Tolkien (or his publishers) would have been able to sue the entire fantasy fiction genre out of existence. A side-effect of the neo-Galambosian intellectual-property power-grab by the copyright industry could well be the end of new genres as such, and their replacement by licensed franchises (like the various Matrix tie-ins).

Posted by: CNWB | http://cnwb.blogspot.com | Wed Jul 2 00:41:02 2003

This spells the end for Weird Al Yankovic!

Posted by: mitch | http:// | Wed Jul 2 02:48:05 2003

Off-topic: In a search for contemporary Galambosians, I discovered http://www.doyletics.com. This is Lawsonomy for the 21st century.

Posted by: Luke | http://www.captainfez.com/blog/ | Wed Jul 2 06:41:46 2003

Weird Al. The cockroaches. The only things to survive (dining on Spam, presumably) the nuclear winter...

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