Editing J. K. Rowling (section)

== Legal disputes ==
{{Main|Legal disputes over the Harry Potter series{{!}}Legal disputes over the ''Harry Potter'' series}}
In the 1990s and 2000s, Rowling was both a plaintiff and defendant in lawsuits alleging [[copyright infringement]]. Nancy Stouffer sued Rowling in 1999, alleging that ''Harry Potter'' was based on stories she published in 1984.{{sfn|Baker|2010|pp=[[iarchive:britishwriters00pari/page/225/mode/1up|225–40]]}}{{sfn|Whited|2002|pp=4–5}} Rowling won in September 2002.{{sfn|Pember|Calvert|2007|p=597}} [[Richard Posner]] describes Stouffer's suit as deeply flawed and notes that the court, finding she had used "forged and altered documents", assessed a $50,000 penalty against her.{{sfn|Posner|2007|p=8}}

With her literary agents and Warner Bros., Rowling has brought legal action against publishers and writers of ''Harry Potter'' knockoffs in several countries.{{sfn|Striphas|2009|pp=161–166}} In the mid-2000s, Rowling and her publishers obtained a series of injunctions prohibiting sales or published reviews of her books before their official release dates.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Geist|first1=Michael|title=Harry Potter and the amazing injunction|date=18 July 2005|page=C3|id={{ProQuest|438844169}}|work=[[Toronto Star]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Kirkpatrick|first=David D.|date=21 June 2003|title=Publisher's efforts to keep story's secrets collide with free speech concerns|work=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/21/nyregion/publisher-s-efforts-to-keep-story-s-secrets-collide-with-free-speech-concerns.html|url-status=live|url-access=registration|access-date=13 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111103002304/http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/21/nyregion/publisher-s-efforts-to-keep-story-s-secrets-collide-with-free-speech-concerns.html|archive-date=3 November 2011}}</ref>

Beginning in 2001, after Rowling sold film rights to Warner Bros., the studio tried to take ''Harry Potter'' fan sites offline unless it determined that they were made by "authentic" fans for innocuous purposes.{{sfn|Jenkins|2006|p=186}} In 2007, with Warner Bros., Rowling started proceedings to cease publication of a book based on content from a fan site called ''[[The Harry Potter Lexicon]]''.{{sfn|Baker|2010|pp=[[iarchive:britishwriters00pari/page/225/mode/1up|225–40]]}}{{sfn|Schwabach|2009|pp=428–429}} The court held that ''Lexicon'' was neither a [[fair use]] of Rowling's material nor a [[derivative work]], but it did not prevent the book from being published in a different form.{{sfn|Schwabach|2009|p=429}} ''Lexicon'' was published in 2009.<ref>{{cite news|last=Askari|first=Emilia|date=15 January 2009|title=Potter guide reaches stores|page=2|work=[[Detroit Free Press]]|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/92377200/potter-guide-reaches-stores/|via=[[newspapers.com]]}}</ref>