The author JK Rowling won a court ruling yesterday to block the Dutch translation of a Russian novel about a girl wizard called Tanya Grotter after arguing that it copied one of her Harry Potter bestsellers.
The injunction from an Amsterdam court stopped publication of the first western edition of The Magic Double Bass by Dmitry Yemets, which her lawyer said copied Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
Yemets - who has sold more than 500,000 books in Russia, spawning radio plays and comic books - said his book was a parody and he trusted his readers to be able to tell the difference between Potter and Grotter.
The court said in a written ruling that the Russian book was an unauthorised adaptation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and that its publication in the Netherlands would infringe Rowling's copyright.
It said: "The court orders [publishers] Byblos to cease and desist from any infringement of Rowling's copyright," including publication of The Magic Double Bass.
Tanya Grotter and Harry Potter have much in common. Both are orphans, have strange marks on their faces, wield magical powers and battle an enemy too terrible to be named.
Grotter and Potter both lose their parents in a battle with a wizard turned bad, whom they go on to confront: Potter fights Voldemort, Grotter takes on Chuma-Del-Tort. And both go to a school for wizards: Potter to Hogwarts, Grotter to Tibidokhs.
Grotter's creator was upbeat. "Tanya Grotter won a moral victory, because the publishers of Harry Potter showed that they were scared of competition," Yemets said in Moscow.
"Now everyone will say that Harry Potter had to run away from a little girl."
Thanks to
Guardian Unlimited for the news
