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Bloomsbury Publishing Plc on Monday denied allegations that author J.K. Rowling copied "substantial parts" of a book by another children's author when she wrote "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire."
The book, published in 2000, was the fourth installment of the hugely successful boy wizard Harry Potter series that has sold more than 400 million copies worldwide and been turned into a multi-billion-dollar film franchise.
"The allegations of plagiarism made today, Monday 15 June 2009, by the Estate of Adrian Jacobs are unfounded, unsubstantiated and untrue," said a statement from Bloomsbury, which publishes Harry Potter in Britain.
"This claim is without merit and will be defended vigorously."
In an earlier statement, Jacobs' estate said that it had issued proceedings at London's High Court against Bloomsbury Publishing Plc for copyright infringement.
It named the estate's trustee as Paul Allen, and said that Rowling had copied "substantial parts" of "The Adventures of Willy the Wizard -- No 1 Livid Land" written by Jacobs in 1987.
It added that the plot of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire copied elements of the plot of Willy the Wizard, including a wizard contest, and that the Potter series borrowed the idea of wizards traveling on trains.
"It is alleged that all of these are concepts first created by Adrian Jacobs in Willy the Wizard, some 10 years before J.K. Rowling first published any of the Harry Potter novels and 13 years before Goblet of Fire was published,” the estate statement said.
In its response, Bloomsbury said 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 publicized 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."
"The claim was unable to identify any text in the Harry Potter books which was said to copy Willy the Wizard."
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(Agencies)
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布盧姆斯伯里出版公司于本周一否認作家J.K.羅琳涉嫌抄襲一事，之前羅琳被指控在撰寫《哈利·波特與火焰杯》時，“大量”抄襲了另一位兒童作家的作品。
該書于2000年出版，魔法男童“哈利·波特”系列的第4部，該系列書籍銷量火爆，已在全球熱銷超過4億冊，所改編的電影票房收入達數十億美元。
“哈利·波特”系列書籍英國出版商布盧姆斯伯里公司在一份聲明中說：“阿德里安?雅各布的出版商在今天，也就是2009年6月15日（周一）所作的抄襲指控毫無理由，毫無證據，是虛假的。”
“這種指控沒有任何依據，我們將堅決反對。”
雅各布的出版商在之前的一份聲明中稱，他們已向倫敦高級法院起訴布盧姆斯伯里出版公司侵犯版權。
該出版商委托保羅?艾倫代理此案，稱羅琳“大量”抄襲了雅各布于1987年所寫的《魔法師威利奇遇記第一部---青紫世界》。
該出版商還說，《哈利·波特與火焰杯》的情節抄襲了《魔法師威利》中的魔法師競賽等元素，“哈利·波特”系列還借鑒了魔法師乘火車旅行的創意。
聲明寫道：“我們認為，所有這些構思都是阿德里安?雅各布在《魔法師威利》中首次提到的，比J.K.羅琳首次出版哈利·波特系列大約早10年，比《哈利·波特與火焰杯》早13年。
布盧姆斯伯里公司回應稱，2004年，羅琳首次被指控抄襲，而在那之前她從未聽說或者見過阿德里安?雅各布，也沒有讀過或者聽說《魔法師威利》一書，當時廣為人知的“哈利·波特”系列首部書籍已經出版7年了。
“《魔法師威利》是一本僅有36頁的小冊子，內容十分空洞，發行量也很小。主人公魔法師威利并不年輕，也沒有以魔法學校為主要內容。”
“他們根本無法指出哈利·波特系列書籍的哪一部份抄襲了《魔法師威利》。”
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（英語點津 實習生許雅寧編輯）
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