A Russian author has just completed his second book about Tanya Grotter - an orphan with magical powers who attends a magic school and flies around on a double bass. He insists he is not copying Harry Potter's adventures but JK Rowling is considering taking legal action. You can read more about it at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/arts/2261752.stm

It wouldn't let me in to reasd the story

I've edited my post to give the link in full

What about Rowling copying Horrowitz?

I'm not a great HP fan myself and don't know what the Horrowitz link is, Polygon, but I do think that there are lots of similarities between Happry Potter and other wizard/witch/school stories.

Horrowitz was hugely successful with a story like that years ago.

Most people seem to think Rowling invented the genre, which is indeed very far from the truth.

This one would be hard to call. It would be impossible to say who had the story idea in his/her head first. Plus, this is a topic that has always interested kids (and adults), so there have been stories about witches, magicians, flying brooms etc for centuries. Who is to say who invented this genre. It will be interesting to see the outcome of it.

Oh, come on, I would not think of such things as who copied what. Important is what comes out in the end, and JKR was lucky to write those excellent stories. Could have been anybody else, though. And besides, it's very well possible that two authors have similar ideas, yet the results are different. And maybe JKR was inspired by some older story - who cares? It's not that HP fans are saying everything else about this topic is gibberish...

I wouldn't even start thinking about copying, or else you'll end up saying that each and every fantasy story in the world is in some way a copy of "The Lord of the Rings", since this book was the first real fantasy story (apart from mythology or something like that). There are, of course, links to LOTR in many fantasy stories, but that's because there's a certain storyline that is necessary to call your work fantasy. There are links between LOTR and Harry Potter as well as Star Wars, The Neverending Story, and millions of other stories. But nobody says Harry Potter is a copy of Lord of the Rings...

See what I mean? My English is a little weird today (I haven't slept much...), so I'm not sure if I made my point clear. And I didn't mean to attack anyone here, so sorry if you feel I came off rude.

One thing more: Recently, I came across a book entitled "Barry Trotter and the Shameless Parody". So what's that?
Did anyone read this book? I might do it when I have the time. And the money

I read the start of Barry Trotter online. V. funny.

I've read that before. It's name is "Some Girl and her Magical Double Bass" It has the exact same plotline as Harry Potter. Stupid copiers.