Release of book dedicated to Harry Potter suspended

The Nov. 28 release of a 400-page book dedicated to Harry Potter is delayed while his lawyers try to have a lawsuit by J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros. dismissed.

Photo: Release of book dedicated to Harry Potter suspended

Roger Rapoport of RDR Books in Muskegon initially vowed to go forward with this month's release.

A hearing to stop the book from being published has been pushed back from Nov. 19 to Feb. 6, and Rapoport's lawyers were given more time Thursday by a federal judge in Manhattan to respond to the lawsuit, which Rowling filed on Oct. 31.

The book is the print version of the hp-lexicon.org Web site, to which Rowling has given permission to post covers, photos and other copyrighted material from her books.

She claims the print version of the Lexicon would improperly interfere with her plans to write her own definitive Harry Potter encyclopedia.

The delay in publishing will give lawyers for Rowling and the movie studio time to read the book, Rapoport said.

"The book they're suing is not the book we're publishing," he told The Grand Rapids Press. "They were guessing the entire Web site - every word on it and every picture - was going to be in the book."