June 22, 2003

As the owner of the now completely read second last unreserved copy of Harry Potter and the Order of The Phoenix from the Mt. Pleasant Mabel’s Fables bookstore, I say: Great Book! 10:39:19 PM

Terry Pratchett, author of the Discworld fantasy novels, responds in a newsgroup posting to a posting about a Washington Post article on fan fiction. While it appears he is will to let people write Discworld fan fiction he is tries not to see it for legal reasons [1] and is concerned about people using characters from children’s books in adult situations. Pratchett is also amused by the fanfic writer trying to copyright a story derived from another person’s work. From the article: As always, before she posts a new installment she will make sure to put a little "c" with a circle at the top, staking a claim to a copyright. But, she acknowledges, she's not sure what would happen if she got an offer to sell her stories. Does she in fact own the stories she wrote -- or does J.K. Rowling? Pratchett's response: And, a nice touch, a fanfic writer apparently adding the copyright symbol to a work where the world, background, characters, histories and other details have been carefully 'derived' from someone else's work. [1] Such as being accused of plagiarism even if you finished your book before the fan fiction came out. 10:36:43 PM

The Rolling Stones will be coming to Toronto on July 30. 10:33:31 PM

Faced with US complaints and a threat to move the NATO headquarters from Brussels, Belgium will again amend its controversial war crimes law. Will the new changes the law, under which foreigners can be tried no matter where crimes were committed, would apply only in cases where victims or perpetrators were linked to Belgium. Of course politically motivated people will now search to see if even one victim is related to a person with Belgian nationality. 11:21:11 AM