Made in China: JK targets Potter fake
Fuente: Scotland on Sunday


IT IS the book the world never thought it would see: an eighth Harry Potter novel, charting the latest adventures of the boy wizard and his friends.

But sadly for fans of the series, the book has absolutely nothing to do with JK Rowling and everything to do with a gang of enterprising Chinese conmen.

For the equivalent of just £1, residents of Shanghai can pick up a copy of Harry Potter And The Chinese Empire. The novel blends Hogwarts characters, a bit of JRR Tolkien, and sheer imagination to create the impression it is a genuine Potter novel.

Rowling's ever-busy team of lawyers are already on the case, planning cases in local courts and talking to the national authorities about having the bogus Potter novels taken off the streets.

The astonishing popularity of the Harry Potter series has made it a target for unprecedented levels of piracy. Bootleg copies and unauthorised translations have multiplied both online and in bound copies and within hours of the launch of new volumes, scanned copies are made available for download on the internet.

The latest volume, Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, became the fastest-selling book in history when it was launched last month, selling 11 million copies in just 24 hours. A fortnight ago, a French teenager was arrested for posting unauthorised translations online.

The 'Chinese Empire' blends feverish writing by an unknown author, bits of martial arts epics, extracts from other fantasy works such as Lord Of The Rings, and random characters from Chinese literature with the Hogwarts characters.

The volumes are printed and bound and then sold by street-sellers at prices way below the authorised translated Harry Potter titles available in regular Chinese bookshops. The illegal copies have convincing-looking covers which can lure the unwary into thinking they are buying the real thing.

The real books sell in China for about £4, much cheaper than the equivalent price of a volume in the West, but still steep in a country where average annual incomes hover around the £900 mark.

Neil Blair, Rowling's legal adviser, said: "We are aware of this one and we are taking action both through the local courts and by negotiating with the authorities in China to prevent violation of copyright. We are very pleased with the co-operation we are receiving from the authorities there."

China's publishing industry is vast, selling about 130,000 new titles a year, almost double the equivalent figure in the United States. In addition, sales of books from street stalls and kiosks is common. Printers and publishers have little incentive to favour regular bookshops over street sellers, and often complain that the shops fail to pay them on time for books sold.

A 2001 study estimated that up to 40% of the books on sale in China may be pirated. Local authors have also been hit by the copying mania, with top-selling writers losing out on millions in lost royalties.

China's fascination with Rowling's boy wizard has led to the volumes outselling all other western children's books in the world's most populous country, although they do not beat Chinese stories in the best-seller stakes. The Chinese editions are translated by teams so that they can beat the pirates, but even then they face an uphill challenge.

Last month, a team of Chinese students, working round the clock and eating nothing but instant noodles managed to get Deathly Hallows translated and online within hours of the English-language edition appearing in the shops. The official Chinese print version is due to be published in October of this year.

In a statement, the students said: "We translated the book because we love Harry, and we do not intend to use it for commercial purposes."

Potter's success in China has even led to calls for the nation's own authors to up their game. The high sales have been put down to the fact that the Potter tales features magic, traditionally a strong theme in pre-Communist Chinese culture, and that the tales are less didactic and "on message" than much post-Revolution children's literature.

Mark Lambert, the chief executive officer of the Scottish Book Trust, said: "It's not actually an issue of money, in this case, but it's an issue of intellectual copyright and theft of the idea and using JK Rowling's name in this way. And she is right to be concerned about this and to be taking action.

"This kind of thing, unauthorised sequels, has been happening before now. For example Star Trek fans write their own episodes online, as a tribute to the series. But this is very different, these volumes are being sold on the streets in order to profit from the name."

John McGowan, a consultant with the Federation Against Copyright Theft, said: "It's clear that the Chinese government need to do a lot more to crack down on piracy and on breaches in copyright law. They need to take it much more seriously. And it's very interesting that they seem to be able to crack down when they want to. They are being very vigorous all of a sudden in protecting the copyright and the symbols of the Beijing Olympics, as they should be."

Margaret Smillie, a copyright lawyer with Bannatyne Kirkwood France and Co in Glasgow said: "Copyright law around the world is pretty much the same wherever you go, only the terminology will change. But while launching a case like this in another country can be done it's a very complex, expensive and involved process. Only someone like JK Rowling would be able to afford something like this."

The first chapters of the latest, genuine, book, appeared on the web in a variety of languages including French, Spanish, German and Russian within 48 hours of the original hitting the bookstands in July.

The secrecy surrounding the publication meant that even Potter's regular translators did not see the English edition of the book before it went on sale.

As well as the rip-off translations which have appeared both online and in print, Rowling has had to battle with rival 'Potter' stories. One of the most controversial was the Tanya Grotter books by Russian author Dmitry Yemets, which starred a magical teenager with round glasses attending the Abracadabra school for young witches.

In March, Rowling and internet auction site eBay were at loggerheads about bootleg electronic copies - or e-books - of Harry Potter novels being sold on the web.

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 wanted the site to take preventative action to ban the books from even appearing for sale.

Publishers use a variety of methods to foil pirate translations, including deluging file-sharing sites with dummy files containing gibberish. They will also tell websites hosting illegal copies to remove them or risk being sued. However, many problem sites are in countries where authorities are stretched, or with lax internet rules, and taking action against bogus sites is difficult.


A esos que lucran descaradamente con HP son a los que se debería perseguir con todas las de la ley, no a los fans que hacen traducciones como un servicio a la comunidad potteriana. <_<

huh? :huh:

:rolleyes:

bueeeeno. suena bastante folklórico heh. Algo así como un crossover :P

Pues sip, he aquí por los que hay que preocuparsse. Como sea esta nota me da risa por lo increíble que suena ^^U

Es algo así como un graaaan fanfic. XD

Yo no compraría algo así que puedo obtener gratis en Internet. =P