This bookbinder erases Rowling from the Harry Potter books and resells them
On the site that offers this service, it is explained: Send your personal copies to be bound, returned and unrolled.»
1100 € for the complete set
Sensitivequeer on TikTok, Flom lives in Toronto: he wants to create ” safe spacefor fans, after JK Rowling’s comments about transgender people. The bookbinder tore out the covers and copyright pages with mentions of the Harry Potter creator, before replacing his drawings.
His practice largely conceptual, exploring themes around trans identity, memory, and masculinity. I also occasionally bind Harry Potter books “. The modified works are sold for more than 1100 € for the complete set, or more than 155 € for an individual copy, GBN announced.
Laura Flom.
Laur Flom ensures that 10% of the price of each sale is donated to associations fighting for transgender rights in Canada and the United States.
Through the initiative, the question of legality also arose. Debates are heated on the subject, between Internet users who consider that there is nothing wrong with what he is doing, and another who wonders: ” I’m sure the book would be considered stolen… »
Ron Coleman, a partner at the Dhillon Law Group in New York. Fox News asked, explaining: “There is a design in copyright law (in North America) called doctrine of first sale. “In principle,” when you buy something copyrighted, it’s up to you“, he continued. It would be subject to “fair use”, he added, if it was part of ” an artistic approach“.
In fact, the US Department of Justice describes the first sale doctrine as follows:Codified at 17 USC § 109, it provides that an individual who knowingly purchases a copy of a work protected by the copyright owner receives the right to sell, display, or otherwise dispose of that particular copy, despite the interests of the copyright owner.»
The same principle can be found everywhere in the world: we communicate with European level of exhaustion of rights, a legal principle that allows, among other things, the buyer of a book to resell it second-hand. The customer assumes ownership of the item and all freedom of use after its purchase.
Rowling, the internet and trolls
Coleman nuances:You are not free to do what we do called derivative work — in other words, you can’t take someone else’s book, cut and paste it, move things around, change features, and sell it as your own book.This is not the case: Flom does not change the content, nor does he adapt the creation.
JK Rowling seems to be talking more about her now for accusations of transphobia, which are mounting as the cases pile up, than for her work as a novelist… Sticky situation discussed in his latest book,The Ink Black Heart.
Far from the fantasy and imagination world of the scarred little wizard, JKRowling’s next text is part of her series of detective stories,Cormoran Strike Investigations. He wrote them under the pseudonym of Robert Galbraith, and was published by Grasset in France in a translation by Florianne Vidal. For this new part, one of the plots seems to be inspired bymisadventures of the author online.
He introduces the character of Edie Ledwell who creates popular cartoons on YouTube. Following an episode with a hermaphrodite worm, he was heavily accused of racism and transphobia by his own fans, as well as by internet trolls.
READ: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Rowling victim of a “disgusting“Sexism
In 2020, the fifth volume ofCormoran Strike InvestigationsFeaturing a transvestite serial killer, Dennis Creed. A Telegraph review then ironically wrote: “One wonders what critics of Rowling’s stance on trans issues will make of a book whose moral seems to be: don’t trust a man wearing…»
Last December, the author also established a support service to help address a “unmet needfor women who have experienced sexual violence, Beira’s Place, Edinburgh.
