Bookbinder removes JKR from Harry Potter novels

[Waitwhat23]

This person is removing the title pages (and unsurprisingly the copyright pages) from Harry Potter novels so that author attribution is removed in order to sell on for a (considerable) profit to those who 'need to feel safe'.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11622773/Bookbinder-23-removes-JK-Rowlings-Harry-Potter-novels-amid-furore-transphobia.html

As has been pointed out elsewhere, European copyright law includes the right for attribution i..e the right to be recognised as the author of a work.

(As a note for the 'Daily Fail!!!' shriekers, this is being reported on various sources but this is by far the most detailed).

I think she has no choice but to sue really. Rebinding your own copies is one thing, but selling them on is quite another.

And of course if JKR does take legal action there will be wails about how “the [right-wing/bigot/transpohobe cwizard lady” is “bullying poor marginalised trans folx” 🙄

Such disrespect, with (as ever, when it comes to TRAs) uthat thread of misogyny woven all through.

I heard recently that JK had said that every time someone takes a pop at her, her sales go up. I was thrilled to hear that as every time I hear about this kind of crap I buy another one of her books in some form (paperback, hardcover, kindle, Audible) as my small way of fighting back. I guess I'm not the only one! Time to buy another book... with the title page intact thank you very much.

Wouldn't it be cheaper and easier to just write "Not by" in front of her name?

If TRAs were yo take all the effort they put into hating one person, and focus it on an actual issue (like creating a new sports league or extra third spaces) i wonder how much they could achieve.

I'll bet JKR doesn't give a fig about this idiot! There's always going to be some non entity doing something like this.

Thank goodness for JKR, I do every day, her public stance on this subject has brought real light on it and has people who would've had no knowledge about it talking about it.

Thank you Jo. Thank you for trying your best to protect my daughter even though you'll unlikely to ever meet her and all the other daughters out there.

I preordered the game on thr PS5. I hope JKR gets royalties from the game sales.

Wonder what he does with the old covers. Maybe he has them tied with a bit of cord and then he whips himself with them, giving himself paper cuts and feverishly whispering her dreaded name.

'I would hope that the impact of my project is just to bring light to her transphobia and to make people aware of the things she has said.

'I get so many comments just asking what she had done.'

...

Can we dare to hope?!

Part of me loves the fact that misogynists are stupid enough to pay for this nonsense. Throw your money away, d*ckheads! But mainly I hope this book-vandal is sued for breaching the author’s rights.

Interesting.

I think you can’t sell copies you’ve done this to as unique products, but I should think there’s a loophole where you could pay this bookbinder to do it to a copy you already own.

His covers look shit.

On the bookbinder's insta, they've made artworks with quotes that claim 'my body had transitioned from threatened to threat'.

Sad when someone sees bodies in these terms. Such a clear defensive act.

I must be thick because I truly don’t understand how removing JK’s name makes anyone safe.
What a load of attention seeking rubbish.
Might just have to buy another JK book.
I really admire JK’s strength, all this crap aimed hatefully at her must be pretty damn wearing.

This is the heart of the matter, isn’t it? All that funding and energy poured into their efforts to erase women as a sex class. But you never hear of them setting up facilities or services for trans people. It’s almost as if that’s irrelevant because they just want to take ours.

I must be thick because I truly don’t understand how removing JK’s name makes anyone safe.

I don't understand how having her name on the books she wrote makes anyone remotely 'unsafe'.

I was wondering how it would go down if she offered to sign the book of anyone who purchased this anonymised version

Aside from all the legal copyright side of it, this is like a reflection of what is at the core of gender ideology: superficially change the appearance of something and pretend it is something else. This is still JKR's work. Still the product of her creative genius, still her words, her writing, her characters.

That's awful and also very contradictory

In order to recreate the books, Laur, who also works as a bartender, seeks out second-hand copies of the series.The covers and copyright pages are removed and replaced with alternative versions. Each book takes around 12 hours to re-bind, not including the time it takes to package and send it off to the buyer.Laur spends approximately 15 hours-a-week on the project, while continuing to work as a bartender at the same time.The books are sold for £979 for a set of seven, and £140 for an individual book, with a percentage of each sale donated to transgender charities. It also says that Laur lives in Toronto, Canada, which may be relevant legally. Is Laur even making the local minimum wage from this though?

Wonder what he does with the old covers

cut to: moving montage of non-stop JK Rowling covers, as in Cinema Paradiso

That's such a good point!

Yes, what's the point?

She Who Must Not Be Named.

I'll be interested to see if JKR/Bloomsbury take legal action (I'm sure they're talking to lawyers). In the UK at least, the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 has detailed provisions around the moral rights of authors to be identified with their works. The main exceptions in this bit of the Act don't apply in this case (IANAL though).

www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/48/part/I/chapter/IV