TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

News & views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics
July 20th, 2007

Pirated new Potter book is already online—in full and even in a handheld-friendly eReader edition

By David Rothman

Harry Potter and the Deathly HallowsSince another well-known site is already mentioning the bad guys by name, I’ll identify The Pirate Bay as a source of illegal editions of the latest Potter book. I’ll avoid a link to the Swedish-based Bay. So much for the embargo in the stores, eh?

Commenters on The Pirate Bay agree that a recent PDF is the real deal. In fact, separately, you can even get a supposed copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in the eReader format—used on zillions of handhelds. Mobipocket and Sony editions surely can’t be far behind, at least if the site stays online. If it goes off, others will take its place. As impatient as I am with J.K. Rowling over her failure to do E, however, I’d suggest you go here instead.

My advice to J.K. and publishers: Get your own legal e-copies online quickly. You want to make trouble for pirates despite the jurisdictional challenges, but you just might be hurting your case by not offering legal alternatives. J.K. has correctly worried that her young fans’ computers might pick up viruses from bootlegged copies. Please, J.K. Do something.

My goof: No s in “Pirate Bay.” Fixed at 6:15 p.m. Washington, D.C., time, thanks to a sharp-eyed reader.

Related: IFPI’s condemnation of the Pirate Bay—one other reason I’m mentioning the Bay by name. It’s already public.

Update, 9:28 p.m.: Elsewhere online, the novel is said to be in Sony Reader and HTML formats.

eReader version of Potter

Note: Above image is not linked.

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