Rowling says suit distracts

NEW YORK -- J.K. Rowling said Monday that her efforts to halt a publisher’s “Harry Potter” lexicon have been crushing her creativity.

Rowling said she has stopped work on a new novel because the lawsuit in federal court has “decimated my creative work over the last month.”

Rowling is suing RDR Books to stop publication of Steven Vander Ark’s “Harry Potter Lexicon.” She says her copyrights are being violated.

“This book constitutes wholesale theft of 17 years of my hard work,” she testified Monday.

RDR’s lawyer, Anthony Falzone, defended the lexicon as a reference guide. Falzone called it a legal effort “to organize and discuss the complicated and very elaborate world of Harry Potter.”

Rowling brought the lawsuit against Vander Ark’s publisher last year.

The legal showdown could last most of the week. Rowling will spend her breaks in the seclusion of a jury room -- away from any die-hard Potter fans. The trial in U.S. District Court comes eight months after Rowling published her seventh and final book in the series. The books have been published in 64 languages, sold more than 400 million copies and produced a film franchise that has pulled in $4.5 billion at the worldwide box office.

Rowling is a fan of the Harry Potter Lexicon Website that Vander Ark runs. But she draws the line when it comes to publishing the book and charging $24.95 for it. She also says it fails to include any of the commentary and discussion that enrich the website and calls it “nothing more than a rearrangement” of her own material.

One of her lawyers, Dan Shallman, on Friday told Judge Robert P. Patterson, who is hearing the trial without a jury, that Rowling “feels like her words were stolen.”

David Saul Hammer, a lawyer for RDR Books, which plans to sell the lexicon, said the judge will have to decide whether the use of the material by the small Muskegon, Mich., publisher was legal because it was used for some greater purpose, such as a scholarly pursuit.