Harry Potter books stripped of J.K. Rowling's name are then resold by 'bookbinder artist' - 'Book artist' takes used books, removes Rowling's name — a project 'spurred by her transphobia,' [s]he claims

By Maureen Mackey | Fox News
Published January 11, 2023 4:43pm EST

A 23-year-old individual in Toronto, Canada, has been hard at work "removing" J.K. Rowling's name from used "Harry Potter" books and replacing not just the book covers with his own custom covers — but removing her name from the copyright pages and titles pages as well, according to SWNS reporting.

The individual has completed at least 30 newly "re-bound books" — offering them for sale in their newly bound form.

Artist Laur Flom, who runs a website in Canada, apparently started the project to "help out" any "Harry Potter" fans who find they have ethical issues with the author while reading her bestselling books.

Flom began the work a year ago, saying his motivation was the allegations of transphobia that were made against the British author, according to SWNS.

Rowling faced backlash a few years ago for comments that were considered by some to be controversial about the transgender community.


"Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling. "Growing up when I did," said a 23-year-old "book artist" based in Toronto, "it was a given that you would read ‘Harry Potter.’" The "artist" removes Rowling's name from her books — and then resells them in newly bound form. (Dia Dipasupil)

Laur Flom told SWNS, "The project is spurred by her transphobia … I was [a fan]. Growing up when I did, it was a given that you would read ‘Harry Potter.’"

Flom added, however, that "after J.K Rowling's views on people like me came out, it left a bad taste in my mouth."


A bookbinder named Laur Flom in Toronto is shown removing pages from a J.K. Rowling "Harry Potter" book — so that Rowling's name is stripped out completely from the book, both inside and out. He then re-binds and resells the books to interested buyers. (SWNS)

He added, "It raised questions about the ethics of consuming her work."

‘Creating a safe space’​

Flom said that "the purpose of this project is to create a safe space for fans to find comfort in the books and critically engage with J.K Rowling's work."

In order to "recreate" the books, Flom — who also reportedly works as a bartender — seeks out secondhand copies of the "Harry Potter" books.

"Just the fact that people have been interested makes me think that it's been successful."​

Flom then removes the covers and the copyright pages of the books — and replaces them with his own uniquely created versions, SWNS reported.


Laur Flom lives in Toronto, Canada, and said his "the project" was "spurred" by Rowling's "transphobia," as Flom termed it. (SWNS)

Each book apparently takes around 12 hours for Flom to re-bind — not including the time it takes for him to package the books and send them off to buyers.

Flom reportedly sells each newly bound book for about $170. For a set of seven, he charges roughly $1,200.

A portion of each sale is donated to charities that serve the transgender community, according to SWNS.


Laur Flom began a project involving J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" books in January 2022, SWNS reported. (SWNS)

The book work has not occurred without controversy.

Flom told SWNS, "[The reactions are] mostly good. The majority of my comments are positive — my last video reached a strange part of TikTok and reactions were mixed, but mostly good."

Flom added, "I would hope that the impact of my project is just to bring light to [Rowling's] transphobia and to make people aware of the things she has said … I get so many comments just asking what she had done."


Bookbinder Laur Flom has posted videos on TikTok about his "Harry Potter" bookbinding project. He describes himself as a "printmaker, book artist and Taylor Swift fan based in Toronto, Ontario." (SWNS)

He also said, "Just the fact that people have been interested makes me think that it's been successful."

Fox News Digital reached out to Flom for comment.

On his website, Flom describes himself as "a printmaker, book artist and Taylor Swift fan based in Toronto, Ontario."

"My practice is largely conceptual."​

He also says, "My practice is largely conceptual, exploring themes surrounding identity, memory and trans masculinity. I also occasionally rebind Harry Potter books."
He says on the site as well, "Send in your personal copies to be rebound, restored and de-Rowlinged."

Scholastic published Rowling's very first "Harry Potter" book in the U.S. in September 1998. That book was "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." (In the U.K., that book was published as "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.")

The publisher, on its website, says that more than 500 million copies of the "Harry Potter" book series have been sold worldwide to date.

More than 180 million copies have been sold in the U.S. alone, it also says.

Adds Scholastic, "If all the ‘Harry Potter’ books ever sold were placed end to end, they would go around the equator over 16 times."

Maureen Mackey is managing editor of lifestyle for Fox News Digital.

Source (Archive)

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SWNS video:

 

[ZehnBoat]

god, i hope very soon people find something problematic of people who made disney shit
i just want "you must consoom capeshit and soy wars, but don't give them money, but also give disney money"

 

[Catgirls are Love]

Okay? I mean, if there's a profitable market for that, job well done for potentially filling that niche. On the other hand, Rowling is still getting your money so mission failed successfully?

But if it's some independent "art" project not for profit, that's really the best thing you could come up with?

 

[DankSmoker]

>the fag is canadian
Well color me shocked! A leaf nigger acting like an insufferable shit? Wow. Nuke c*nada.

Not only a Canadian faggot, but also French--a triple threat.

 

[Fomo Hoire]

>he
>dude
She’s obviously a FTM. She even mentioned “trans masculinity” and her hands are clearly female in the video.

Source

Unsure if this counts simply as 'Reselling' or something else genuinely illegal. It's scummy as fuck no matter what the truth of it is.

Troon's removing Rowling's name and substituting it with a personal brand.


Source

I wanted to see the modified copyright page to see if it still had the text about it being illegal to buy books without their covers, but thar wasn't deemed important enough to display in the gallery.

---

There's lots of things going on, I'm not sure which are most important

• Sbe is selling what appears to be an upcycled stripped books. I don't know how long it's been since anyone read a paper book, but the copyright page usually says that if the cover has been removed then the book has been sold illegally. Technically that doesn't apply here because the books were allegedly purchased second hand, not stolen, but we're just taking her word here. It could have been self printed for all we know.
• The copyright page itself (which usually says buying the book without its cover is illegal) has been removed. No idea if that's got any special legal status, but I imagine it must, otherwise my dumb kid self that asked "why wouldn't the criminal just remove the copyright page if the cover is already gone?" is a genius.
• This is a derivitive work - troon admits it when she calls it art - so this goes beyond first sale doctrine and we can ask about fair use. Or in Canada, "Fair Dealing". IANAL but given that 99% of the content is not transformed, I don't think this qualifies as fair use.
  • If this were meant to be a display piece and primarily have the cover be displayed, I could see the argument. The usage of the original book would be symbolic and the text of the original would not be part of the artistic message. That doesn't apply here however - this is sold to make people feel less bad while reading the books, meaning the original text is meant to be accessible.
  • The alleged social commentary intended - JK Rowling is a terf - is ineffective when the new work doesn't mention JKR nor troons. This is meant as both a statement that "I don't believe this counts as satire/parody/social commentary for legal purposes" and a "this project is a failure, using the purported motive as a metric for success".
• This vaguely reminds me of the video streaming service that would rent out movies, but automatically fast forward through all the naughty bits to leave a safe for all ages movie behind. I can't remember what that was called so I can't check the rationale behind the decision but I'm pretty sure that was deemed illegal and forced to shut down. And that arguably was more transformative than this.
• Literally, she who shall not be named.

 

[Swole McPole]

Just as this troon will never be the sex she aspires to be, so JK Rowling will never NOT be the author of the Harry Potter books.

 

[Sayer of the N-Word]

It says right there in the article that the books are bought used, you illiterates. He/she goes to thrift stores and buys them for a canuck buck, Rowling sees none of it.

Flom said that "the purpose of this project is to create a safe space for fans to find comfort in the books and critically engage with J.K Rowling's work."

How are you supposed to engage critically with the work if you decontextualize it by stripping away its authorship and even part of the literal physical corpus of the book? Now Harry Potter is just floating in a void, a story that came from nowhere and which can offer you nothing that you didn't already bring.

 

[Barry McKockner]

View attachment 4249162
Source


She's removing her name and substituting it with her own brand.
View attachment 4249074

Source

I wanted to see the modified copyright page to see if it still had the text about it being illegal to buy books without their covers, but thar wasn't deemed important enough to display in the gallery.

---

There's lots of things going on, I'm not sure which are most important

• Sbe is selling what appears to be an upcycled stripped books. I don't know how long it's been since anyone read a paper book, but the copyright page usually says that if the cover has been removed then the book has been sold illegally. Technically that doesn't apply here because the books were allegedly purchased second hand, not stolen, we're just taking her word here. It could have been self printed for all we know.
• The copyright page itself (which usually says buying the book without its cover is illegal) has been removed. No idea if that's got any special legal status, but I imagine it must, otherwise my dumb kid self that asked "why wouldn't the criminal just remove the copyright page if the cover is already gone?" is a genius.
• This is a derivitive work - troon admits it when she calls it art - so this goes beyond first sale doctrine and we can ask about fair use. Or in Canada, "Fair Dealing". IANAL but given that 99% of the content is not transformed, I don't think this qualifies as fair use.
  • If this were meant to be a display piece and primarily have the cover be displayed, I could see the argument. The usage of the original book would be symbolic and the text of the original would not be part of the artistic message. That doesn't apply here however - this is sold to make people feel less bad while reading the books, meaning the original text is meant to be accessible.
  • The alleged social commentary intended - JK Rowling is a terf - is ineffective when the new work doesn't mention JKR nor troons
• This vaguely reminds me of the video streaming service that would rent out movies, but automatically fast forward through all the naughty bits to leave a safe for all ages movie behind. I can't remember what that was called so I can't check the rationale behind the decision but I'm pretty sure that was deemed illegal and forced to shut down. And that arguably was more transformative than this.
• Literally, she who shall not be named.

Article just says it's removing her name from the copyright page, not the page itself.

As far as copyright goes, I don't think there is an issue, because it's not creating a copy at all. It's ONLY modifying legally purchased versions. There's no law AFAIK requiring you to keep any media in it's original form.

 

[Fomo Hoire]

Article just says it's removing her name from the copyright page, not the page itself.

Different paragraph

Flom then removes the covers and the copyright pages of the books — and replaces them with his own uniquely created versions, SWNS reported.

 

[TyrasGuard]

This is what happens when you aren't allowed to call people a faggot and move on

 

[Alligator Alcatraz]

These people are more upset by a childrens book about a little wizard boy saving the world than a book written by literally Hitler.

 

[Looney Troons]

Not going to lie, I think rebinding books is a pretty cool idea. Had I the time, I’d love to go back and rebind some of the things on my bookshelf that have been handed down to me from great grandparents, etc.

This purpose, however, is the epitome of a troon move. This process, without doubt, takes a lot of time. Moreover, despite all of the rage and intent behind it, nothing changes. You’re applying an elaborate White-Out over things people can already presume. Everyone knows who the author of these books is no matter how you try to hide it. The person doing this could use their time and energy to do something to better their community, or even themselves. Vapid consumerism, and the inability to move on. Millions of pieces of literature, yet something written for elementary school students is the thing that matters most to you in life.

Grow up

 

[Pentex]

It's probably not illegal what this mentally ill female is doing, but it is exceptionally petty and pointless.

 

[teriyakiburns]

Isn't this illegal?

Yes. Removing the copyright notice breaches the digital millennium copyright act, specifically section 1202. It constitutes "false copyright management". UK law has a similar provision in the CDPA (I think it's section 198? probably wrong), so I imagine that Canada (where this troon lives) would also have a similar protection.

 

[Jack Awful]

Flom reportedly sells each newly bound book for about $170. For a set of seven, he charges roughly $1,200.

That's highway robbery

 

[Slobs]

Flom[sic] reportedly sells each newly bound book for about $170. For a set of seven, (s)he charges roughly $1,200.

Gotta respect the grift. There's little wonder that these people are always whining about being broke despite being spoiled and having cushy nepotistic jobs in the most privileged cities on the planet, their uselessly specialised friends are bleeding them dry with bourgie shit like this. If you can't pass as a man, I guess you can always succeed at parting idiots with their money.

 

[zionlion1488]

Okay? I mean, if there's a profitable market for that, job well done for potentially filling that niche. On the other hand, Rowling is still getting your money so mission failed successfully?

But if it's some independent "art" project not for profit, that's really the best thing you could come up with?

Rowling isn't making any more money from it though, these are used books. I've never worked at a bookstore but I can't imagine they send a check to writers every time they sell a used book.

 

[Illuminati Order Official]

Removing cover from a book and pretending it's a different book? It's almost like removing your penis and pretending to be a woman. And comes with the same problem: what's inside remains the same.

 

[Bukke Bruse]

Ballsy business strategy.

Spoiler: Sneed

Calling it, its gonna be gamergate 2.0 when Josh plays the Harry Potter game.

 

[zionlion1488]

Okay? I mean, if there's a profitable market for that, job well done for potentially filling that niche. On the other hand, Rowling is still getting your money so mission failed successfully?

But if it's some independent "art" project not for profit, that's really the best thing you could come up with?

Rowling isn't making any more money from it though, these are used books. I've never worked at a bookstore but I can't imagine they send a check to writers every time they sell a used book.

 

[Weeby Catto]

So if you read Harry Potter without Rowling's name the transphobia disappears? If I read Mein Kampf without Hitler's name it's no longer a nazi book?

But but... what about the genocide they create the moment they bought her books??? 7 volumes!! 7 dead trans!!