"Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling got a restraining order halting the publication of an unauthorized Harry Potter encyclopedia on Thursday — and yet, the author says she is disappointed.

"I take no pleasure in the fact that publication has been prevented for the present," she wrote on her Web site Friday (November 8). "On the contrary, I feel massively disappointed that this matter had to come to court at all."

During a hearing in New York federal court, Judge Robert Patterson ordered that RDR Books refrain from completing the typesetting, printing and distributing the "Harry Potter Lexicon," which the publisher had intended to release later this month (see "'Harry Potter' Author J.K. Rowling Sues Publisher Over Unauthorized Encyclopedia"). The publisher is also prohibited from advertising, soliciting, licensing or accepting orders for the book, and was ordered to remove advertising on Amazon.com and RDR Books' Web site. Any money received for or from the book from November 8 forward also has to be placed in escrow.

The restraining order is only a temporary one, to give the court some time to rule on Rowling's motion for a preliminary injunction, which is to be filed by January 7. RDR Books has until January 22 to oppose, and then Rowling would have until January 29 to respond to that. The preliminary injunction hearing date was set for February 6.

"The 'Lexicon,' which is now in preparation, will not be published until the book is ready to be examined by the court," RDR Books publisher Roger Rapoport said.

Rowling opposed the publication of the book because she planned to write her own encyclopedia of the Harry Potter world to benefit a charitable organization, and claimed copyright infringement. Rapoport said the "Lexicon," which would be a book form of the Web site run by Steve Vander Ark, would be a critical reference work that would augment, not compete, with Rowling's own book, and claimed fair use.

"It is ironic that publication of Steve Vander Ark's 'Lexicon' is being threatened by Ms. Rowling after he has joined other librarians to fight organizations that have attempted to ban or curtail Ms. Rowling's own work," Rapoport said. "It is our wish that Ms. Rowling join Mr. Vander Ark in his campaign for literary freedom and free expression by dropping her complaint against a book we are confident she would enjoy reading. We will continue to defend our author and the 'Lexicon' in this David and Goliath battle with an eye toward protecting the rights of readers and writers everywhere."

"Unless their position changes," Rowling wrote, "we will all return [to court] next year. Given my past good relations with the Lexicon fansite, I can only feel sad and disillusioned that this is where we have ended up."