First, why does it matter how much money Ms. Rowling has? If she was less successful, would using her copyrighted material be wrong? Is it only ok because she is rich? Heck, since she’s rich, let’s just go into her house and take her stuff! Those darn rich authors, how dare they work hard and be successful. They don’t deserve the same rights as poor struggling authors.

Second, how does it matter that she does not publish enough material to satisfy some people? That’s certainly not a reason to justify using her work for personal gain. She can publish as seldom of as often as she sees fit. It’s her property. No one has the right to publish her property (and make money from it to boot) just because some people are not getting enough of it.

It’s also worth noting that there were 7 Harry Potter books published in 10 years, but the later books were about 2 years apart, probably owing to Ms. Rowling’s success and no doubt her work on the films (and the fact that there is generally about 2 years between films). The time of the first film coincides with the start of longer times between novels. This is not that different from a lot of other successful authors in the Sci/Fi Fantasy genre. Since 1999, Neil Stephenson has published 4 novels with one more coming later this year. Neil Gaimon has about 9 novels and collections since 1990. Gene Wolfe has about 9 novels and collections since 1999. So maybe J.K. is not really that stingy….