By Maria Puente, USA TODAYAttention, Harry Potter fans: Stay off the Internet if you want to be surprised by the final installment of the boy wizard's saga. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, due in bookstores Friday at midnight, is leaking all over cyberspace.
In a scene straight out of a Cold War spy story, someone — unidentified so far — snapped digital pictures of every page of what appears to be the final Potter book and uploaded them on a Europe-based file-sharing site, ThePirateBay.org. From there it spread to other file-sharing sites, and to news sites and blogs.
Not every page is readable, but enough are that patient readers can find out what happens. At least one site listed who dies. USA TODAY andother mainstream media are not reporting spoilers.
Is this a real leak or a fake? After all, earlier books in the decade since the first one was published in Britain have been leaked, and some were frauds.
"We are working to verify whether these are yet more fakes," says Minna Fry of British publisher Bloomsbury. "Until we know, we have no comment."
"We are working to verify whether these are yet more fakes," says Minna Fry of British publisher Bloomsbury. "Until we know, we have no comment."
U.S. publisher Scholastic is going "site to site, asking people to take down files," spokeswoman Lisa Holton says.
Emerson Spartz, founder of popular Potter fan site Mugglenet.com, says he believes the page photos are "legit." His half-joking advice to fans: "Find a bomb shelter and lock yourself away."
"I'm just not going to get on the Internet or watch TV" for the next three days, says Potter fan Jeff Chambless of Birmingham, Ala. "If I did find out what happened, it would not be the end of world, but it's more fun to enjoy a book as the author intended us to read it."
"I'm just not going to get on the Internet or watch TV" for the next three days, says Potter fan Jeff Chambless of Birmingham, Ala. "If I did find out what happened, it would not be the end of world, but it's more fun to enjoy a book as the author intended us to read it."
But such old-fashioned notions have little clout in cyberspace, where computer whizzes have toiled to penetrate the security fortress the publishers have erected around J.K. Rowling's book.
Meanwhile, the massive rollout for Deathly Hallows has hardly budged.
Meanwhile, the massive rollout for Deathly Hallows has hardly budged.
"Do I think it's going to hurt the sales of the book? No. Harry fans don't just read the book to get to the end," says Ann Binkley, spokeswoman for national book retailer Borders.
The first person to tell the world that the book had been leaked appears to have been Byron Ng, 33, a Canadian computer technician in Vancouver, who searched the Internet for Deathly Hallows. He says he found the page photos in batches starting Monday morning on ThePirateBay.org. He says he did not take or post the photos.
He says he went looking for the book to prove a point — that publishers, filmmakers and other artists do not have effective means of preventing theft of their content via file-sharing.
As for avoiding the spoilers, Ng says: "Just don't go looking for it."
As for avoiding the spoilers, Ng says: "Just don't go looking for it."
2 comments:
I admit to file sharing music - but this seems wrong to me on many levels. Maybe because I'm so amped for the actual book, I don't know - it just seems to be cheating too much.
I understand the fever but I think it's better sated by waiting. That's one of the reasons I'm determined to finish the book as early as possible.
Post a Comment