Could JK Rowling be guilty of plagiarism?

You do have a point there, window dressing and all that. But what if it is true? What if someone had already written something much like it? Don't you think the credit must be given to whom it is due?

Remember the Helen Keller story? She was sure her story was hers till somebody told her she must have heard it from someone. It could happen. It is possible that JK could have read something and developed it as hers. But if there was another thinker who came up with such a story, that person must be given a chance to prove his worth. He also deserves the bucks.

That's right. Plagiarism, from what I was taught is copying someone else's work and putting your name on it. It's like the George Harrison suit. And for those of you who don't know about that, listen to the song "my sweet Lord" by George Harrison and "he's so fine" by the Chiffons. The first part of the melodies on those two songs are the same. They sued george and they won. George paid them and he said in an interview if he would have thought about the song when he was writing it he could have changed something. But he also knew it was in no way intentional. And I think it was Bob Seger who said yeah, you're almost afraid to write a song because your song may resemble someone else's. It's stupid.

Its absolutely possible! JK claimed in one of the previous lawsuits that she had not heard of the 80's children books Larry Potter the child Wizard with short cropped hair and thick glasses. Obviously, the resemblances were crazy, but he courts found no wrong doing. The name Larry and harry and the look still have nothing to do with the substabce of the book. JK might have read these when she was younger, but obviously she is not manufacturing child activity and coloring books. People look too deeply to have an apple be an orange when indeed an orange and apple at the end of the day are both fruits. Let each be what they are. Now, I have read great fantasy authors from Tolkein to Weis&Hickman, to Harry Potter, and many in between. If they let everyone with a fringe likeness claim copyright infringements, the heirs of Tolkein would sue everyone and we'd have no fantasy movies at all. Read any great authors from early genres such as Heinlein for sci fi and HP Lovecraft for horror, you'd basically be left with very few stories coming out if there was no resources for developing imaginations. Plagiarism is plagiarism, but a genre is not copyrighted to anyone, whether they think they created it or not.