Harry Potter Counterfeiters Beware!
Police arrested a 16 year old who posted his own translation of the latest Harry Potter book on the Internet weeks ahead of the official French release date. If you think author J.K Rowling was against it, think again:
Neil Blair, a lawyer at the Christopher Little Literary Agency, said Rowling’s agents were “heartened” that the French authorities took action against the teen “to protect copyrights and to avoid innocent fans being duped.”
72 million copies of Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows were sold in 24 hours. So why do you think they’re pressed to prosecute?
Here are three theories:
1) Deathly Hallows is the last book in the series, and J.K. Rowling and her publishers might be feeling the need to squeeze every penny they can get;
2) J.K. Rowling, her publisher, and her agents are still bitter about Deathly Hallows leakage and spoilers prior to the books release; or
3) J.K. Rowling really hates the French.
My money’s on #3.
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Why do you think Rowling authorized the hit on the kid? And do you think it was right?
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August 9th, 2007 at 8:02 pm
They’re creating Harry Potter books out of whole cloth in China.
Wang Lili, editor of the China Braille Publishing House, which published “Harry Potter and the Chinese Porcelain Doll” in 2002, one of the numerous knockoffs here, said: “We published the book out of a very common incentive. Harry Potter was so popular that we wanted to enjoy the fruits of its widely accepted publicity in China.”
The attitude reflected in Wang’s comment goes a long way toward explaining not only the explosion of unauthorized Harry Potter literature in China, but also the much larger problem of rampant piracy in China, where travelers can find six different knockoffs of Viagra - without prescription - on display at airport drugstores, and where fake DVDs, fake Picassos, fake bottled water, fake cellphones and even near-identical copies of automobile models are widely available.
August 9th, 2007 at 8:03 pm
The link wasn’t allowed, but the quoted text above came from an International Herald Tribune article dated July 31.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/31/news/china.php
August 9th, 2007 at 9:43 pm
Thanks for the info. I guess J.K. Rowling and her publishers have their work cut out for them. At least they can get some knockoff Viagra for their trouble!
June 12th, 2008 at 3:47 am
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October 3rd, 2008 at 9:20 pm
chinese porcelain…
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