 A French high-school student has been detained for questioning, and then released by the Police after he posted an unauthorized translation of the latest Harry Potter book on the Internet. Though he could, in theory, face stiff sentences for copyright infringement, the publisher has not yet pressed charges and seems unlikely to do so, given the non-commercial nature of the fan’s endeavor.
[UPDATE, August 14: Predictably, the publisher announced on Monday 13 that it will not seek damages or file suit against the teenage. Story in Business Week and Boing-Boing.] The AFP and Reuters report that the 16-year-old, from the southern city of Aix-en-Provence, was taken into custody on Monday and released on Tuesday by a police anti-counterfeiting unit over the unauthorised translation of J.K. Rowling's seventh and final Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows . AFP and Reuters report that the first chapters of the pirate translation were available to download days after the July 21 release of [the English edition of the book]” the official French language version of which is scheduled for publication on October 26. The complete text appeared online within days.
A network of dedicated translators According to 01net., the teenager, known on the internet as “0a$!s”, had set up the Hptrad forum to gather Harry Potter fans in order to allow for a “true and beautiful translation” of the book. Interviewed in July by 01net., the teenager explained that Hptrad’s work was of much better quality than other unauthorized translations as it made by a team “of translators and proof-readers able to correct spelling and grammatical errors and also guarantee the consistency of the whole translation.” And indeed, even the police, were reportedly impressed by the "near-professional" quality of the work. The distinction between fans and infringers Predictably, Gallimard, the French publisher of Harry Potter, was less impressed. Its spokeswoman told Reuters that it was “concerned that such acts of counterfeiting are threats to basic authors' and creators' rights” and that “it [was] not a young person or a fan we [were] talking about here – [but] organized networks that use young people.” The police blocked the website hosting the unauthorized translations. The copyright holders could sue the teenager for copyright infringement but are unlikely to do so, given the non-commercial nature of his motivations. When they released the teenager the Police said that “it seemed that he was not aiming to make money, that he was just a fan.” There is little incentive to sue the teenager, as Maitre Eolas, a prominent French law blogger, points out. The publisher has already obtained the blocking of the infringing content and suing the young fan could prove to be a public relations disaster. However the police continues their investigations. They hope to question several more people in the case, in order to identify possible accomplices and fraudsters. As Eolas notes, the police wants to make sure that the work of this genuine fan has not been used for commercial gain by unscrupulous third parties.
Fighting piracy: lessons from Hollywood?
This case is another manifestation of the success and worldwide appeal of The Harry Potter phenomenon. With more than 11 million books sold since its July 21st release, it is the fastest selling book ever.
However, it also shows how the franchise has, because of its worldwide appeal, put its publisher in a catch 22 situation where many of the fans were bound to be disappointed.
Indeed, the publisher decided not to give the manuscript for translation before the release of the English version in order to limit the risk of leakage concerning the plot. In doing so, it frustrated fans that do not speak English and would have to wait several months for the official translation. The hype that surrounded the launch of the latest book was propagated worldwide whether people were English-speakers or not. It is therefore easy to understand how French Potter fans would want to take part in the phenomenon.
Perhaps the printing industry could learn some lessons from the movie industry. One of the few consumer-friendly steps taken by Hollywood to fight worldwide piracy of its movies has been to reduce the delay between the release of movies in the US and the rest of the world. Some blockbusters (such as Spiderman 3) even had a simultaneous worldwide release.
The last Harry Potter book could have benefited from such a multilingual simultaneous worldwide release. However, now that the world's most highly anticipated literary series has come to an end, the question poses itself as to whether a situation of this magnitude, that posed such logistical challenges, would be presented to publishers ever again? SOURCES MEDIA English - Police arrest French teen over Potter translation. Reuters .com, August 8, 2007. - AFP, French teen quizzed over pirate Potter translation. Expatica.com, August 8, 2007. - John Leyden, French teen held over online Potter translation. The Register, August 9, 2007. French - Un lycéen arrêté pour une traduction pirate d'Harry Potter. Libération , 8 août 2007. - Agence France-Presse, Harry Potter piraté: un Français interrogé. Technaute.com, 8 août 2007. - Un adolescent arrêté pour la mise en ligne d'une traduction pirate de Harry Potter. ZDNet France, 8 août 2007. - Damien Bancal, Un internaute arrêté pour avoir diffusé une traduction du dernier Harry Potter. 01net., 9 août 2007. COMMENT - Maitre Eolas, Quand Libé joue au Daily Prophet... Journal d’un avocat, 8 août 2007.
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