Brent McPherson was sentenced yesterday to twenty to twenty five years for the publishing of Necromancy for Dummies. When giving her verdict Judge Goldberg said “We don’t allow people to practice brain surgery without years of schooling, a degree and a license, why would we allow necromancers to do the same?”
Mr. McPherson is suing the Federal Magical Safety Board for impinging on his first amendment rights when they banned the book as illegal use of magic and a safety hazard.
Finally, the publisher of the “… for Dummies” series is suing Mr. McPherson for copyright infringement.
~L.A. Times article
Author’s Note: The masquerade is a common thing found in many urban fantasy stories. So, what if there was none? What sort of things would people have to deal with? What sort of books on magic would they write? “… for Dummies” series seemed to be ripe for the picking.
[…] Necromancy Author Doesn’t Rise Free From Justice I’m rather obnoxiously proud of the title. Horrible pun. Perhaps one day I’ll write up an actual story for it. […]
Overall, I loved this story.
It would be interesting to read the briefs. The First Amendment argument would be quite strong here. We may not allow people to practice brain surgery without a license, but we let them discuss it freely and medical school textbooks can be purchased by anyone.
The “for dummies” publisher probably would not have a strong, if any, copyright allegations to bring. But, at least if properly registered, they would have a strong trademark case to bring.