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)

---

SWNS video:

 

[zionlion1488]

That's highway robbery

The "people" who buy them will be either spending their mommy and daddy's money or their free public assistance. Nobody who works for a living would spend $1200 on children's books about magic.

 

[The Dude]

This is fucking retarded. What's the point? She wrote the books. There is no changing that. Its her work, her words, her characters, her world. You can't change that. And she already got, like, ALL the money for them. This is cope on retarded levels.

 

[zionlion1488]

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!!

A fun thing to do is take a quote from Mein Kampf and attribute it to somebody else.

"Those who want to live, let them fight, and those who do not want to fight in this world of eternal struggle do not deserve to live." - Malcolm X

 

[Sayer of the N-Word]

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.

Exactly, this woman is buying the book and using her artistic/craftswoman skills to transform the book. "Harry Potter with Rowling's name conspicuously absent" is very clearly different from an ordinary copy of Harry Potter, and she isn't making copies. The book already existed and she has the right to cut it up.

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.

This lawyer's page says that 1202b only applies if you remove the copyright management in order to facilitate copyright infringement, i.e. to claim the work for yourself or obscure ownership of a work you are distributing copies of. No one's copyright is being infringed here.

 

[Catgirls are Love]

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.

Even if it's a used book, that's still a purchase and royalty to Rowling for the initial purchase. Whether you buy used or new, Rowling has made the same amount in the end so nothing of consequence has happened because it's not like that freshly printed Harry Potter book you avoided directly purchasing isn't going to be snapped up by somebody else.

 

[Looney Troons]

I really wish someone would print and bind the Half-Life: Full Life Consequences series of fanfics by Squirrelking.

 

[Vic Viper T301]

Exactly, this woman is buying the book and using her artistic/craftswoman skills to transform the book. "Harry Potter with Rowling's name conspicuously absent" is very clearly different from an ordinary copy of Harry Potter, and she isn't making copies. The book already existed and she has the right to cut it up.



This lawyer's page says that 1202b only applies if you remove the copyright management in order to facilitate copyright infringement, i.e. to claim the work for yourself or obscure ownership of a work you are distributing copies of. No one's copyright is being infringed here.

He's putting his logo on the back and reselling it for profit. Isn't that claiming ownership and distributing copies?

 

[zionlion1488]

Even if it's a used book, that's still a purchase and royalty to Rowling for the initial purchase. Whether you buy used or new, Rowling has made the same amount in the end so nothing of consequence has happened because it's not like that freshly printed Harry Potter book you avoided directly purchasing isn't going to be snapped up by somebody else.

I just don't understand grown adults and their obsession with children's entertainment.

 

[Mango Cobra]

All these faggots and trannies had to do was read a new book, and even now they're still incapable of doing that even when the person they used to worship as the greatest writer ever "betrayed them"

 

[teriyakiburns]

This lawyer's page says that 1202b only applies if you remove the copyright management in order to facilitate copyright infringement, i.e. to claim the work for yourself or obscure ownership of a work you are distributing copies of. No one's copyright is being infringed here.

She deliberately takes out the copyright page and substitutes her own to remove Rowling's name from the book. It's right there in the article.

 

[Table Country]

Only in clown world could there exist a black market for a book you can purchase legally.

 

[Catgirls are Love]

I just don't understand grown adults and their obsession with children's entertainment.

I assume it's because of that one potion that turns someone into someone else that shows up in less than half of the books but eternally fuels their fantasies and delusions.

I'm not familiar with Maple Law, so where would this fall in regards to counterfeit goods?

 

[Catler]

As much as they hate men like Walsh, the tranny but hurthurt over a real, actual women standing up against them is amazing, much less a woman they can’t bully into submission.

Troons (both m/f) really can’t handle a woman saying ‘no’.

 

[PuffyGroundCloud]

JK Rowling be like
~*Laughs in Royalties and Copyright Infringement*~

 

[zionlion1488]

I assume it's because of that one potion that turns someone into someone else that shows up in less than half of the books but eternally fuels their fantasies and delusions.

I'm not familiar with Maple Law, so where would this fall in regards to counterfeit goods?

In Canada, if you're a tranny you don't have to follow the same laws as everyone else. It's not even hyperbole, you can find countless articles about troons getting away with horrible crimes that would put normal people in jail for a very long time.

 

[evilsponge]

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

I gotta say l respect the grift selling used books for 1000% profit under the guise of making safe spaces

 

[Sayer of the N-Word]

She takes out the copyright page and substitutes her own. It's right there in the article.

She's not making new copies and there's no market confusion here. People paying $170 for these books know what they're getting, which is not just a copy of Harry Potter, it is a book which has been physically transformed to make critical and cultural commentary. What people are buying is that commentary. Rowling has lost no money here since the whole point of this is that Rowling is absent from the equation.

 

[Tom Myers]

I can't remember the last time I saw that triangle symbol on a car or a tattoo. I suspect that the type of person who gets a Harry Potter tattoo would wear clothes to cover it up in public.

 

[REGENDarySumanai]

This is how lawsuits start.

 

[William Tyndale]

Ralph Wiggam: “I’m helping!”