Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. et al v. RDR Books et al

Filing 26

DECLARATION of Jeri Johnson in Support re: 22 MOTION for Preliminary Injunction.. Document filed by Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., J. K. Rowling. (Cendali, Dale)

W a r n e r Bros. Entertainment Inc. et al v. RDR Books et al

D o c . 26

UNITED STATESDISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF NEW YORK SOUTHERN

- - - - -x
W A R N E R BROS.ENTERTAINMENT INC. and J . K .ROWLING, Plaintiffs, -againstR D R BOOKSandDOES 1-10, Defendants. C a s eNo. 07-CY-9667(RPP)

D E C L A R A T I O N OF JERI JOHNSON IN SUPPORT OF P L A I N T I F F S ' MOTION FOR PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION

declareand stateas follows: I , Jeri Johnson, l. I am the SeniorTutor (AcademicDean)of, and Ashby Fellow and Lecturerin

of role E n g l i s hat, ExeterCollege,Universityof Oxford. The corresponding in the United States and that is, a tenuredfaculty memberwho teaches a "Fellow and Lecturer"would be a professor, research the universitylevel. I havebeena Fellow and Lecturerfor l7 years. At at conducts my from 1800to the present; E x e t e rand Oxford, I teachEnglishandAmericanliterature American,Englishand Irish especially literature, is p a r t i c u l a rspecialty in twentieth-century literaturein English,and on on doctoralresearch twentieth-century m o d e r n i s m .I supervise I responsibilities, haveedited theory. In additionto my teaching t e x t u a landbibliographical Dubliners,and A Portraitof Joyce'sUlysses, booksincludingJames r e c e n teditionsof numerous and Virginia Woolf s The Yearsfor t h e Artist as a Young Man for Oxford UniversityPress Joyce,Virginia Woolf, SigmundFreud, on Penguin and havealsopublishedessays James

Dockets.Justia.com

feministtheory,andtextualtheory. Since2001,I havebeenSeniorTutor of the college,the role c o r r e s p o n d i nto AcademicDeanor Deanof Facultyin a U. S. collegeor university. In this g of p o s i t i o n ,I am responsible all academic matters the College:appointment all Fellows of for and matters, development tenurereviewsfor these,oversightof all academic a n dLecturers, of policy. Sincethe early 1990s haveactedas an assessor scholarly I of a d m i n i s t r a t i o n academic UniversityPress.I havea Masterof and for Cambridge m o n o g r a p h s Oxford UniversityPress for on in A r t s and a Masterof Philosophy EnglishLiterature.Exceptfor the factsstated information and if calledas a witness, a n dbelief,all of the factssetforth hereinareknown to me personally, thereto. I couldandwould testify competently 2. I havereadthe Harry PotterBooks. I alsohavethoroughlyreviewedDefendant's

proposed book, TheHarry Potter Lexicon(the "Lexicon"). Basedon a closereadingof the be as m a n u s c r i p tI, havedetermined that the Lexiconcould not reasonably classified a work of publishing. usedin the field of scholarly as s c h o l a r s h ior of research the term is commonly p 3. ("MLA") in the United States andthe Association The Modern Language

("RAE") in the United Kingdom arethe Research Assessment Exercisefor Higher Education of p r e - e m i n e norganizations the assessment scholarlywork for the purposes publication, t for of in a n dfor appointment promotionof scholars the academy.The MLA's StyleManualand and for G u i d eto ScholarlyPublishingsetsforth the "gold standard" writing, publishingand or in and literary studiesin the United States. e v a l u a t i n g work of scholarship research literature a in of T h e RAE setsforth similar suidelines the evaluation for and assessment scholarlyresearch t h e UnitedKingdom. 4. repeatedly stipulate that,to qualify as Both the MLA and the RAE guidelines

somedegree originality or invention. It must of s c h o l a r s h i p research, work must possess or a

. it constitute "original investigation;" must "invent" or "generate .. ideasleadingto new or an in to improvedinsights." With respect dictionaries particular,in orderto constitute substantially s c h o l a r s h i psucha work must in itself makean originalcontributionto the "creationor , parts)of the relevant (the essential constituent d e v e l o p m e n tof "the intellectualinfrastructure" " it l a n g u a g e disciplinewithin which it is located: in this instance, must illuminateour or that of u n d e r s t a n d i nof the elements the disciplineof "Harry PotterStudies,"of the "language" g a i s "the Harry PotterBooks." On the analogyof a dictionaryof a particularlanguage, scholarly d i c t i o n a r yof the "language"Harry Potterwould be requiredto lay bareits own underlying premises and aboutthe "grammar"of the language to justify and articulateits own principlesfor its of t h e selection, definitionand organization its "partsof speech," choiceof illustrationand e x a m p l e , logic of etymologicalderivation. Only thuscould it purportto makean original its or and of to of c o n t r i b u t i o n our understanding the underlyingstructures components the language ine " d i s c i p l "Harry Potter. 5. because lacks it or The Lexicon fails to constitute work of scholarship research a

nor a n y degree originality or inventiveness, doesit contributein any original way to the of (of or infrastructure the language c r e a t i o n development maintenance the intellectual , or of for d i s c i p l i n eof "Harry Potter")that is particularlynecessary this type of work. Thereis no i n f o r m a t i o ncontained within the Lexiconthat is the originalwork of its authoror that is derived of f r o m any sourceotherthan the Harry PotterBooks or the statements J. K. Rowling. The terms from the Harry PotterBooks,or from interviews l i s t e din the Lexiconhave simply beenextracted on w i t h Rowling,or from individual elements her own website:J K Rowling.com,and defined b y paraphrasing quotingdescriptions or directlyout of the subjectmaterial. Mr. VanderArk in i n c o r p o r a t evirtually no independent s analysis the Harry PotterBooks. He engages no of

within the Series.The discussion the themes, of metaphors literarydevices or that are present is L e x i c o nremainssilenton its logic of definitionor etymology;its principleof organization s i m p l y alphabetical, of selection: that don't select;includeanythingand everything. Overall,the L e x i c o naddsnothingnew to the field with respect the Harry PotterBooks. to 6. My conclusion that the Lexicondoesnot constitute work of research a or

s c h o l a r s h i p based only on my analysis the Lexiconas a whole, but alsoon statements is not of m a d eby Steven VanderArk on his website,hp-lexicon.org.On his site,Mr. VanderArk d e s c r i b e s work as a catalogue the Hany Potter"canon." He definesthe "canon" as his of " l n f o r m a t i o nwhich hascomedirectly from J.K. Rowling in eitherwritten or spokenform," and explains that the Lexicon is "an attemptto catalogin a user-friendly way all the informationMs. R o w l i n g hasgiven us aboutthe world shehascreated, universe Harry Potter." of the 7. Justas Mr. VanderArk himselfpointsout, it is evidentthat the information

c o n t a i n e d the Lexicon is a merecatalogue informationwholly derivedfrom Ms. Rowling's in of in b o o k s ,statements website. The terms,peopleandplaceslaid out alphabetically the or L e x i c o naretakenstraightfrom Ms. Rowling's own originalHany Potterworld. Suchtermsare d e f i n e dusingthe fictitious factsthat Ms. Rowling hasinventedin orderto build the Harry Potter u n i v e r s e .Eventhosetermsthat havemeaningoutsideof the Harry Potteruniverse defined are l a r g e l yin termsof their meaningwith respect the Harry PotterBooks. For example, when to d e f i n i n g"Argentina,"the Lexiconnotesthat this SouthAmericancountry's"Quidditchteam r e a c h e d World Cup quarterfinals the within the lastcentury." The entry for "hair-careproducts" i s : "GilderoyLockhart'ssecretambitionis 'to rid the world of evil and markethis own line of h a i r careproducts."' Even a word like "apparition"is definedwholly in termsof the Harry P o t t e rBooks,not as a ghostor phantom,but as "an advanced spell usedby fully trainedwitches

else. . . ." andwizardsto disappear from oneplaceand appear almostinstantlysomewhere 8. It is alsoevident-- and in fact Mr. VanderArk admitson his Lexiconwebsite--

the t h a t the only sources that havebeenconsulted the process preparing Lexicon arethe in of H a n y PotterBooks and Ms. Rowling.l 9. of Further,one of the most creative and markedlyoriginal elements the Harry

P o t t e rBooksderivesfrom the fertile "nominative"geniusof J. K. Rowling: foremostamongher for creative talentsis Rowling's gift for conceiving new "things" and of generating them of of names: names characters, be sure,but alsoof wizards,of potions,of fabulousbeasts, to of p l a n t s ,of runes,of spells,of sweets, statues stairways, games and teams, ordersand of of and of Animagus, c h a m b e r s hallows. They proliferate, and multiply, divide,exfoliate:Aramantula, gulpingPlimpies,polyjuicepotion,time-turner, Parseltongue, Slyherin, sneakoscope, Nymphydora Tonks,Bertie Bott's Every FlavourBeans, Quidditch,Albus PercivalWulfric then simply B r i a n Dumbledore and,yes,Harry Potter. Mr. VanderArk's act of appropriating, a l p h a b e t i c a l larranging y Ms. Rowling'stechnicolour nouns, definingthem in termswholly of d e r i v e dfrom her work, is an exploitation that goesstraight the heartof Rowling's distinctive to genius. creative 10. Thus,ratherthan being a work of scholarship research, Lexicon simply the or

t a k e sMs. Rowling's intellectual"furniture," catalogues throughdescriptions haveeither it that order. b e e nlifted or synthesized from Ms. Rowling, and rearranges in unoriginalalphabetical it T h e r eis nothingoriginal or creativeaboutorganizing someone else'sinformationalphabetically, a n dregardless suchrearranging, fact remains of the that the furniturestill is Ms. Rowling's.

' I understand representative pagesfrom the Lexicon Websitedescribing sources informationusedtherein the of that a r eannexed the Declaration MelanieBradley. to of

of I declare underpenaltyof perjuryunderthe laws of the United States Americathat the f o r e g o i n gis true and correct. Executed January10,2008,at Oxford, England. on

submitted, Respectfully