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A single mum who planned to host a Harry Potter themed dinner for Halloween in her London home has been threatened with legal action by a major Hollywood studio.
The woman - who goes by the name Ms Marmite Lover - runs The Underground Restaurant from her home, hosting "pop-up" dinner parties and supper clubs for foodies.
She recently advertised her Harry Potter dinner on her blog, selling tickets for 25 pounds ($44) each.
Her menu - including butterbeer, dandelion wine, pumpkin soup, mint humbugs and caldron cakes - was inspired by the boy wizard stories.
But when Warner Bros got a sniff of what was cooking, it sent Ms Marmite Lover a terse letter warning her that her themed dinner would infringe its copyright over bestselling author JK Rowling's famous character.
Warner Bros said that while it was "delighted" Ms Marmite Lover was a Harry Potter fan, "no-one may copy, license, exhibit, reproduce or otherwise trade on the Harry Potter Properties without the prior authorisation and consent of Warner".
"We would, therefore, ask that you refrain from holding and/or offering for sale any tickets to the 'Harry Potter Nights' and confirm to me by return email that the 'Harry Potter Nights' will not go ahead as planned," the letter said.
"Warner does not, of course, object to you holding a generic wizard/Halloween night at The Underground Restaurant."
Ms Marmite Lover said she had written back to Warner Bros informing them she had changed the name of her Halloween dinner to 'Generic Wizard Night'.
"But I added that JK Rowling herself - having at one time been a struggling single parent and having donated to the National Council of One Parent Families - would probably approve of a single mother being entrepreneurial and creative," she wrote on her blog.
ABC News
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Harry Potter dinner disappears
Wednesday October 28, 2009 UK
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#1
- Swifty♥Adam
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Posted 28 October 2009 - 01:13 PM
MultiQuote
#2
- goodbye a'st1, i will miss u guys
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Posted 29 October 2009 - 04:49 AM
aish
everything is so copytrighted these days
sighs
and
lol at the generic wizard night
:buahaha
everything is so copytrighted these days
sighs
and
lol at the generic wizard night
:buahaha
#3
- faq.asianfanatics.net
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Posted 29 October 2009 - 06:48 AM
Greedy corporations! This is for fans, BY fans! What's the big deal?
#4
- faq.asianfanatics.net
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Posted 29 October 2009 - 10:57 AM
Don't think they would care as much if she wasn't charging for admission and profiting from a copyrighted idea.
#5
- faq.asianfanatics.net
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Posted 29 October 2009 - 11:13 AM
Quote
"But I added that JK Rowling herself - having at one time been a struggling single parent and having donated to the National Council of One Parent Families - would probably approve of a single mother being entrepreneurial and creative," she wrote on her blog.
I don't think she was being "entrepreneurial and creative", since they weren't actually her own original ideas but JK Rowling's. I think it's unethical that she's trying to profit from someone else's hard work, single mother or not.
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