WARNER BROTHERS KILLED A LIBRARY’S HARRY POTTER-THEMED LITERACY PROGRAM OVER COPYRIGHT
I read the first Harry Potter book back in the late 90’s out of utter boredom. Someone loaned it to me and I literally felt embarrassed at picking it up. But then, of course, I read the whole damn thing in one sitting. The rest, of course, is history. The Harry Potter films inspired millions of children to read the books. By itself, it may prove to be the biggest aid to getting children to read in the modern era. So it’s more than a little disconcerting to learn that Warner Bros., the company that owns the rights to the Harry Potter movies, has killed a library Harry Potter literacy program.
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BUT UNTIL NOW, WARNER BROTHERS ENCOURAGED THESE READING PROGRAMS
And there’s really no other way to put it, because that’s what happened. The Teton Library in Jackson, Wyoming, has used Harry Potter in its literacy programs for children for years. And it’s worth mentioning that Warner Bros. had for some time encouraged these kinds of programs using Harry Potter to get kids involved with reading. But apparently, those days are over, au revoir, finis. Because last week the library put out a press release explaining that they had received a “cease and desist” letter from Warner Bros. legal representation. In other words, Warner Bros. is putting the next round of greed on the front burner, and it’s not clear that they even need to.
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Warner Bros. Kills Library Harry Potter Literacy Program, Because Copyright
WARNER BROTHERS IS NOW ONLY INTERESTED IN BOOSTING THE NEW HARRY POTTER REBOOT
So why the sudden change with Harry Potter copyright enforcement, to the degree that it’s killing literacy programs for kids? Well, it’s pretty simple and mercenary: there’s going to be a reboot of the Harry Potter franchise and Warner Bros. wants to deprogram kids these days to make room for more commercial success with the new version. And if you ask me, it’s incredibly lame. Because there were a ton of reading programs using Harry Potter books that were coordinated with movie releases. And this got a lot of kids interested in reading those and many other books.
Warner Bros. is clearly trying to embody Voldemort.