Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

What Hacker News says

1. bhelkeyAug 2026
   > it would be easier for them to distribute the work after the copyright of the work expires

   Copyright does not expire for a very long time. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was released ~30 years ago in 1997. It remains protected for the duration of the life of the author (J.K. Rowling) plus 70 years.

   Given actuarial tables from the UK[1], this works out to be around ~95 years from now (~2120).

   [1] https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsde...

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2. foresterreNov 2025
   It seems to work decently even with just one or two titles for popular titles, but less so for the niche.

   For example, the title "Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre" by Keith Johnstone, linked by another article posted to HN today gives back the following suggestions:

   - Truth in Comedy: The Manual of Improvisation by Charna Halpern - Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson - 1984 by George Orwell - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter, #1) by J.K. Rowling - Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari - The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho - The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell - Dune (Dune, #1) by Frank Herbert

   It's a bit unfortunate that all suggestions are fairly popular titles, which are fairly easy to find, while the unpopular or niche may be just as well written but a lot harder to find.

   Within niche topics or books, it is also usually harder to provide multiple similar enough titles up front.

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3. isaacfrondMay 2023
   Tl;dr gpt4 seems to have detailed knowledge of the following copyrighted books (The first half of the list)

   Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone J.K. Rowling 76%

   1984 George Orwell 57%

   The Fellowship of the Ring J.R.R. Tolkien 51%

   Fifty Shades of Grey E.L. James 49%

   The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins 48%

   Lord of the Flies William Golding 43%

   The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams 43%

   Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe 30%

   The Silmarillion J. R. R. Tolkien and Christopher Tolkien 28%

   Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury 27%

   A Game of Thrones George R.R. Martin 27%

   The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown 26%

   Dune Frank Herbert 26%

   Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston 25%

   To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee 25%

   Casino Royale Ian Fleming 24%

   Neuromancer William Gibson 22%

   Ender's Game Orson Scott Card 20%

   Brave New World Aldous Huxley 19%

   Gone with the Wind Margaret Mitchell 18%

   Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Philip K. Dick 17%

   The Lost Symbol Dan Brown 16%

   Inferno Dan Brown 15%

   Divergent Veronica Roth 15%

   The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck 15%

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4. nearbuyOct 2022
   That's not what's happening here. Copyright work remains copyrighted regardless of how you produced it. If you lived in a secluded cave and completely independently wrote Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (unlikely, I know, but it's hypothetical), you'd be violating J.K. Rowling's copyright by selling it.

   Copilot doesn't help people intentionally launder copyrighted code. It may cause people to accidentally use copyrighted code without realizing it. They're still liable.

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5. dongkyunOct 2022
   > If you lived in a secluded cave and completely independently wrote Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (unlikely, I know, but it's hypothetical), you'd be violating J.K. Rowling's copyright by selling it.

   This is absolutely incorrect. Independent creation is a complete defense to copyright infringement. Funny enough, Learned Hand gives a near identical example to highlight the opposite conclusion ("if by some magic a man who had never known it were to compose anew Keats's Ode on a Grecian Urn, he would be an 'author,' and, if he copyrighted it, others might not copy that poem, though they might of course copy Keats's").

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6. MBCookJan 2020
   1. The Snowy Day (Ezra Jack Keats)

   2. The Cat in the Hat (Dr. Seuss)

   3. 1984 (George Orwell)

   4. Where the Wild Things Are (Maurice Sendak)

   5. To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)

   6. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)

   7. Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury)

   8. How to Win Friends and Influence People (Dale Carnegie)

   9. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (J.K. Rowling)

   10. The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Eric Carle)

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