[img]http://www.snitchseeker.com/images/news/dan_radcliffe_80.jpg' align='middle'> Harry Potter and the inviolate copyright act - HP and the inviolate copyright act

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Fans at an Ottawa conference found a novel way to avoid lawsuits: They made Harry Canadian


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Hpana have a link to an artical about a Canadian Harry Potter Fan Club.

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It's tough being a Harry Potter fan club these days. Mention the bespectacled teen wizard in a conference program, put up posters, or -- heaven forbid -- dress up like him and you risk a trademark infringement lawsuit from the higher powers that control Harry's merchandising empire.

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So, in a solution that's increasingly common among legions of Potter-obsessed fans, organizers of an international Harry Potter conference this weekend in Ottawa have tweaked the children's classic. Their Harry has Canadian roots.

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New World wizards have spent the ensuing centuries hiding such creatures as the Sasquatch from easily-duped Muggles, and teaching generations of wizards at the Laurentian Normal School of Consolidated Magicks, a prep school located in tiny, unsuspecting Chibougamou, Que.

\"The town, of course, has grown up around the settlement (of wizards),\" says a 30-page booklet handed to 130 delegates of \"Convention Alley,\" an event organized by the 12,600-member online fan group, HP For Grownups.

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Canadian relatives to Harry, Hermione and Ron are equal in everything except that little wee trademark symbol beside their names. This is because setting up an alternate universe was the only way organizers could skirt a multi-page book of guidelines that have been issued to fan groups by Warner Bros., which owns the movie and licensing rights.

Rules forbid using anything that could be construed as a recognizable copyright or trademark. No pictures of the actors, or depictions of the characters. No names. And every handout must carry a disclaimer noting the conference isn't endorsed by Warner bros, the publishers, J.K Rowling or her agents.

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Online, there's plenty of evidence that Harry Potter fans are finding creative ways to show their devotion. Taking a page from the Trekkie handbook, many have become authors themselves.

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At websites like Fictionalley.org or sugarquill.net are full-length novels -- by fans for fans -- that imitate characters or situations in the original novels. Most \"fan fiction\" as it's called, is tolerated as long as it's only published online.

Representatives for the author have, however, stepped in to curb other alleged examples of copyright infringement.

Click Here for the full artical.

Source: Thanks to The Ottawa Citizen VIA both Hpana and Wizard News