Plaigirism: Was J.K Rowling's Harry Potter a Stolen Idea?

Recently J.K Rowling was accused of plagiarizing part of the story in her popular epic, “Harry Potter.” After scowerig the web for information on the supposed “plagiarized work” I found out the accusation is coming from the fantasy novelist Adrian Jacobs’s in a 1987 book “The Adventures of Willy the Wizard.”

It’s not that I disagree with the idea of plagiarizing being bad. Of course, plagiarizing is a terrible thing; but what qualifies as plagiarizing? It’s not like she copied any text, or slightly changed words in a part of his text, and called it her own. If she did anything, she stole his idea without giving him credit. But accusing her of even that is a stretch. How are you supposed to know that you’re plagiarizing text if you’ve never heard of it before? Someone may have had a similar idea before you; and you may have just not known it. If you think about plagiarism like that, it’ll turn out that everything, in one way or another, has been plagiarized. It’s ridiculous to think that two people who’ve never interacted can’t have similar ideas on a subject.

Just look at how extensive the Harry Potter books are when it comes to Wizards. She has basically written out every plausible idea behind wizards living in the modern world. This makes it nearly impossible for someone to write something new about wizards without it being “plagiarized,” according to plagiarizing cases like this, at least. And how can it not be likely she has written at least part of a story that is similar to something someone wrote about wizards before.

Now, I doubt J.K Rowling did come up with every single idea in her books alone. Not to say she has done anything wrong. But I think all authors take inspiration from previous works—and I think that should be totally acceptable. Authors should write a section in their novels that describe previous authors, works, movies, or novels that they took inspiration from for their book, to give those previous works credit.

Taking inspiration or even a small amount of an idea from someone else shouldn’t be considered so “awful” just moving on into modern literature; building on ideas of the past. Just like scientists can’t get further without building onto previous scientific work; how can we expect literature to get any further without building on? It’s not like we scream “Theft!” when a scientist uses another scientists formula (as long as credit is given); I think the same should be expected in writing.

The amount of damage this is already doing to J.K Rowlings nearly spotless record is appalling, I’ve already read comments like this from other websites:

“Wow, i looked up to her. what a jerk. i knew no one could think of that on their own. she totally crushed my dreams.”

“After all the famous “Harry Potter” was stolen idea…? I could not belive it…
Nowadays, anything can possible.”

“I have lost ALL respect for JK Rowling. I think of her as a role model in literature.”

Even if she did steal some of her ideas, the respect for her should not be lost. She spent countless hours writing some of the greatest stories of our time. She created believable characters, plots; an entire new world, out of nothing. I’m still a fan, and I think everyone else should be as well; she hasn't been proven guilty of anything anyways.

“Good writers borrow; great writers steal.”

Mini-relating fact: Did you know that a vast amount of Shakespeare's ideas were "stolen"? It was accpetable and even encouraged in his time and age.

This is the statement from Bloomsbury (J.K Rowlings Publisher):

"JK Rowling had never heard of Adrian Jacobs nor seen, read or heard of his book Willy the Wizard until this claim was first made in 2004 - almost seven years after the publication of the first book in the highly publicised Harry Potter series - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and after the publication of the first five books in the Harry Potter series. Willy the Wizard is a very insubstantial booklet running to 36 pages which had very limited distribution.  The central character of Willy the Wizard is not a young wizard and the book does not revolve around a wizard school.This claim was first made in 2004 by solicitors in London acting on behalf of Adrian Jacobs' son who was the representative of his father's estate and who lives in the United States. The claim was unable to identify any text in the Harry Potter books which was said to copy Willy the Wizard.  This claim is without merit and will be defended vigorously."