Expecto Piracy-num!
We are one day shy of the cataclysmic release of the FINAL Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows. Many of my friends (why they are friends, I can’t tell you) are planning on camping out all night by the local Barnes and Noble to get their copies of the final book, only to then venture to a local diner to sit, eat, and drink coffee, until they finish the book.
Of course, energy and expectations are high. So high, in fact, that Scholastic, the publisher, has spent over $20 million in order to keep the book out of the hands of others. So, this clearly worked, right?
Wrong. Yesterday, Boing Boing reported that there is already a pirated copy online. it took a superfan only 24 hours to create a crude PDF file of the entire book, made up of literal photos of each page. You can download it as a BitTorrent.
Then, this morning, The Guardian reported that Scholastic is preparing lawsuits against online retailers who have already shipped advanced copies.
And, if that’s not enough eTrouble for Potter, both the New York Times and the Baltimore Sun went ahead and broke embargo, publishing their reviews of the book before they had agreed to.
What can they do? Not much. Crazy Potter fans who can’t wait will read the photographed pages. Other crazed Potter fans will steer clear of ALL newsstands, so as not to chance glimpsing the illegal review. And all of them, regardless, will go and buy forty copies of the book on Friday night.
Lighten up, Scholastic, you’re dealing with Time’s people of the year, here!
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