Piracy of Potter books still widespread
July 21, 2003 at 9:05 PM ET
James
The Leaky Cauldron (via Rocky Mountain News)
focuses on the emergence of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in internet downloading networks.JC, a 36-year-old Harry Potter fan in Kansas City, Mo., decided he was too old to go chasing after the fifth book in the popular series when it came out last month.
Instead, he downloaded Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix from the Internet, conveniently avoiding both bookstore crowds and the $29.99 cover price.
"I thought it was a little slow until the second half, then it got much better," said JC, who insisted on being identified only by his online nickname because he thinks that what he did was illegal. He said he still intended to buy the book to read to his 8-year-old son.
So far, authors and publishers have mainly stood on the sidelines of the Internet file-swapping frenzy that has shaken the music industry and aroused fear among makers of motion pictures.
But the publishing phenomenon around the young wizard appears to be forging a new chapter in the digital copyright wars: Harry Potter and the Internet pirates.
A growing number of Potter devotees around the world seem to be embracing the prospect of reading the voluminous new book (766 pages in the British edition; 870 in the American version) on the screen. And at least some of them are assisting in the cumbersome process of scanning, typing in or translating the book, which its author, J.K. Rowling, has not authorized for publication in any of the existing commercial e-book formats.
Recently, enthusiastic readers put unofficially translated portions of Order of the Phoenix on the Web in German and Czech, only to remove them after the publishers that own the rights in their respective countries threatened legal action.
English-language copies of the book - along with fan-written stories masquerading as the real thing - are available on all the major file-sharing networks in a variety of file formats.
Instead, he downloaded Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix from the Internet, conveniently avoiding both bookstore crowds and the $29.99 cover price.
"I thought it was a little slow until the second half, then it got much better," said JC, who insisted on being identified only by his online nickname because he thinks that what he did was illegal. He said he still intended to buy the book to read to his 8-year-old son.
So far, authors and publishers have mainly stood on the sidelines of the Internet file-swapping frenzy that has shaken the music industry and aroused fear among makers of motion pictures.
But the publishing phenomenon around the young wizard appears to be forging a new chapter in the digital copyright wars: Harry Potter and the Internet pirates.
A growing number of Potter devotees around the world seem to be embracing the prospect of reading the voluminous new book (766 pages in the British edition; 870 in the American version) on the screen. And at least some of them are assisting in the cumbersome process of scanning, typing in or translating the book, which its author, J.K. Rowling, has not authorized for publication in any of the existing commercial e-book formats.
Recently, enthusiastic readers put unofficially translated portions of Order of the Phoenix on the Web in German and Czech, only to remove them after the publishers that own the rights in their respective countries threatened legal action.
English-language copies of the book - along with fan-written stories masquerading as the real thing - are available on all the major file-sharing networks in a variety of file formats.