Rowling's ire at Harry Potter and the pirates of Ebay

Published on Sunday 4 March 2007 02:55

ONE of the world's best-selling authors and an internet giant are locked in battle over how to deal with online piracy.

JK Rowling and eBay are at loggerheads about bootleg electronic copies - or e-books - of the new Harry Potter novel being sold on the web.

Rowling has called for the online giant to take action to prevent pirated copies of Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, to be published on July 21, being traded on the net. Her lawyer said it was "unacceptable" that it should be left to Rowling's own representatives to patrol eBay and flag up rip-off copies.

Publishers fear they might lose millions through illegal sales as pirates scan the book into computers and then sell or give away electronic versions on the internet.

Although eBay has a scheme which bans illegal copies of goods, it is up to the company to flag up offending examples. Rowling's publishers worry that when the book is published, the rush of pirate copies will be impossible to track down.

Last week Rowling won a court order in India banning eBay's local affiliate from allowing the Potter e-books to be traded online.

Neil Blair, Rowling's legal adviser, said: "We and JK Rowling believe eBay should take preventative steps to avoid pirate goods being offered for sale to innocent fans."

He added that eBay's stance was "unacceptable" and that they would be keeping open the possibility of individually suing pirates who attempt to trade bogus copies online.

Blair said: "We do take piracy very seriously and as always will take all reasonable steps to protect both the innocent fans and JK Rowling's legitimate rights. The innocent fan may think that they are purchasing the 'genuine' article only to find that it is fake, incomplete, contains inappropriate or pornographic language or images, viruses that affect their computers etc."

A spokesman for eBay said pre-emptive blocking of the electronic books was not realistic. The company has argued that they should not be seen as the auctioneers but rather as the platform allowing others to auction their goods.

He said: "We take this issue very seriously and we co-operate with a range of industries and copyright holders to protect their interests. A number of companies, including JK Rowling's, are signed up to our Verified Rights Owner programme, which is highly successful at protecting trademark rights.

"It would be difficult to block such items without also blocking legitimate sales, like second-hand Harry Potter books or other merchandise."

Rowling wants eBay to act so bootleggers will be blocked from trading computer copies of the book which buyers can pay for and download, typically for 1 a book.

The buyer can then read the story on their computer.

David Price, the head of piracy investigation for the Cambridge-based internet consultancy Envisional, said: "Publishers know people are going to pirate this book and we shall see teams of people working to upload it. If you know where to look it will be available within hours.

"The publishers will be working to stop unauthorised copies going around the internet for free, but they will be most concerned about e-books, because pirates will actually be selling them online."

Rowling's representatives refused to comment on how they might foil copiers. Common methods include deluging file-sharing sites with dummy files containing gibberish or messages berating the bootleggers. They will also tell websites hosting illegal copies to remove them or risk being sued.

When Rowling's last book, Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince was published, in July 2005, Scotland on Sunday tracked down rip-off freelance translations in French, Spanish, German and Russian within days of the original hitting the bookstands.

Editors banned from Deathly Hallows site

ONLINE egos over the new Harry Potter book have forced the internet encyclopedia Wikipedia to ban users from editing the page about the forthcoming book, writes Nicholas Christian.

The Wikipedia site on Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, has been protected from being edited, a status normally reserved for such contentious topics as Tony Blair and the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The site - which allows users to update entries - was closed for the second time in a month last week after a small group of users began squabbling and deleting each other's entries on the website.

The so-called "edit-war" involved successive users logging on and wiping out their rival's entries and keying in their own submissions. Others intervened by "vandalising" the page with screeds of randomly typed letters.

The disputes over the page revolve around to what extent users should be able to speculate about a book and what constitutes "informed sources" about the volume.

A spokesman for Wikipedia, said: "The site has been shut down just to allow everyone to calm down a bit."