Ownership and the Internet

“From this point forth, we shall be leaving the firm foundation of fact and journeying together through the murky marshes of memory into thickets of wildest guesswork.”
-Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

The area of online publication is extremely grey as it is a new area of interest; In contrast Copyright laws have been around for centuries. Recently lawyers for JK Rowlings, famous series Harry Potter have come out saying that they will cut down the amount of slash/porn that exists in the fan fiction world. A spokesman for AOL Time Warner, the company that holds the film and merchandising rights has said that it is their “moral obligation” and continued to state, “This is especially true in the case of indecent infringement of any icon whose target audience is children.”
This begs the question do they have the right to do this? And if so could it hurt them in the long run.

This is not the first time that Warner Brothers has sent “cease and desist orders”. Further blogs will go into greater detail about previous situations and the outcomes. However I must begin by stating that the Harry Potter series is under both copyright and trademark. Therefore most fan fiction is illegal, and the simple dis-claimers that appear on most stories do not change the fact of legality. Regardless of the fact that the story was written in England, most developed countries are members of the Universal Copyright Convention or the Berne Convention, which protect the rights of the originators of work.
Having stated the legality of the issue I would argue that with a wider fandom, within the Internet it is to JK Rowlings and Warner Brothers benefit that these sites and stories exist. It is these very sites that ‘fuel the flames’ between the releases of books and movies. JK Rowling is in the business of getting her story out to the world, Warner Brothers in the business of making money and the Internet aids both these purposes.