Harry Potter back in the news

On the heels of a court decision  banning the publication of "The Harry Potter Lexicon," a reference guide relating to the popular Harry Potter books (as discussed in an earlier blog), Steve Vander Ark, the would-be lexicographer is back in the headlines again.

This time, the discussion is about his new book, "In Search of Harry Potter," a guide to Harry Potter-related sites throughout the United Kingdom. (Perhaps most interesting to Potter fans will be Vander Ark's claim to have discovered the location of Hogwarts school on Rannoch Moor in the Highlands.)

The new book is scheduled to be published next month and is making headlines because Potter author J.K. Rowling's agents are asking to see the manuscript in advance. Their concern is to determine whether or not Vander Ark breaches copyright by using too much of Rowling's language.

(In the court decision banning his earlier manuscript, a New York judge stated that Vander Ark had appropriated too much of Rowling's language.)

Vander Ark has told the press that this time around the words are all his and there should be no copyright issues.