Ah! The Lexicon content - yes, thank you for adding that. I've not read it extensively, nor much about it. But it did seem to me that as a sort of fan compilation - even if SVA began it and put in much work making it all pretty - it would have lots of content from people other than SVA.
Which does put him (or RDR, to be precise, as it's their project) in a bind. If the proposed publication uses lots of commentary and definitions and etymologies of spells and such, and cross-references and lists -- compiled by others, then he's using their work without permission.
But if he strips all that out, then it's down to simply being the quotes from HP books that JKR says, and that's not only too close to be fair use (if I read the definitions right), it's definitely not transformative.
Rock and a hard place, yes? (Which is kinda why I surmised he wanted the indemnity clause in his contract - to protect him from other fans as much as JKR!)
Still hoping to learn from the case what makes for the big difference between free-online versus published-for-pay. JKR also called this "plagiarism," which is also *not* the definition commonly used, as SVA was hardly claiming to have written HP. Now, all universities so far as I've heard will tell you that whether you pass off someone else's work as your own for a History grade, or sell it to some other student to do so, it's still the same violation. Certainly, I've never heard of plagiarism "not counting" if you didn't get paid. (And even if you didn't get an A.)
But business law (about money) and ethics (about principles) are two totally different things. I mostly only know ethics.
I've always found it weird that a lot of fans believe that if you write for "love" it's better or more pure somehow than wanting to be paid. (Unless you get, like, billions! Which is pretty amazing, so then you're better than pure, like getting your virginity back or something.) But -- ongoing issue, I know.
I would definitely be ticked if I contributed to a fandom site and some other fan suddenly was selling a book with my work in it!
I'm trying to keep that issue -- does SVA "own" Lexicon? -- separate from the courtroom issue -- does JKR "own" all commentary on HP, and if so, how much of it, and in what forms?
Come to think of it, though, it's "ownership" coming and going, isn't it? Freakin' capitalism, guh. Seriously harshes the fandom lurve!