I think there should be a personal-worth-dollar-value at which you can no longer claim you’re being “ripped off”. But that’s just the whining of a poor poet. Is JK getting fleeced by this upstart small press looking to publish a Harry Potter lexicon? Rowling is framing her argument as a need to protect fans and fan-generated work… Um, yeah. Undoubtedly the guy in question is out to make a buck, as is Rowling, who was just about to buy that new ivory backscratcher. So what’s The Law say? I believe it says, “Sorry, Jo.”

Ark is editor of a Web site containing a fan-created collection of essays and encyclopedic material on the Potter universe, including lists of spells and potions found in the books, a catalog of magical creatures and a who’s who in the wizarding world.

Rowling said she was especially irked that the site’s owner and the lexicon’s would-be publisher, RDR Books, continued to insist that her acceptance of free, fan-based Web sites justified the efforts.

“I am deeply troubled by the portrayal of my efforts to protect and preserve the copyrights I have been granted in the Harry Potter books,” she wrote in court papers filed Wednesday in a lawsuit she brought against the small Muskegon, Mich., publisher.

She said she intends to publish her own definitive Harry Potter encyclopedia.

“If RDR’s position is accepted, it will undoubtedly have a significant, negative impact on the freedoms enjoyed by genuine fans on the Internet,” she said. “Authors everywhere will be forced to protect their creations much more rigorously, which could mean denying well-meaning fans permission to pursue legitimate creative activities.”

She added: “I find it devastating to contemplate the possibility of such a severe alteration of author-fan relations.”