Harry Potter lands teenager in jail
The IPKat is grateful to Jim Davies for pointing him in the direction of an article in Time concerning action taking against a French teenagers by none other than the teen wizard himself. An unnamed French teen was carted off by the gendarmes, questioned, and held overnight after posting an French translation of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows online. The novel isn’t released in French until 26 October since the French translator wasn’t provided with a copy until the English release date of 21 July. It appears that the boy translated the whole work himself. His version was found by the French agency for fighting counterfeiting, which alerted Rowling and Gallimard Jeunesse, the publisher of the French version. JK 
Rowling’s literary agent welcomed the news, pointing to an alleged network of French P2P sites which are posting French translations and making a profit from carrying advertising on the sites where the translations can be found. "The real Harry Potter fans are not supporting this", he said. Meanwhile, the teen may face charges.
The IPKat wonders how one can tell who a ‘real’ Harry Potter fan is. It seems that to fit into this exclusive group, one must not only be keen to read the books, but also to support its copyright, and the way in which the publishers are controlling the market by creating massive anticipation but failing to fulfil it in a timely manner. Copyright allows them to do this, just like it allows them to create an enormous demand for translations, but then fail to satisfy it for many months. The IPKat doubts whether supporting legal action against a fanatic teenage Potter fan who appears to have made his translation for the sheer love of it is going to endear the publishers to the ‘real’ fans.
Rowling’s literary agent welcomed the news, pointing to an alleged network of French P2P sites which are posting French translations and making a profit from carrying advertising on the sites where the translations can be found. "The real Harry Potter fans are not supporting this", he said. Meanwhile, the teen may face charges.The IPKat wonders how one can tell who a ‘real’ Harry Potter fan is. It seems that to fit into this exclusive group, one must not only be keen to read the books, but also to support its copyright, and the way in which the publishers are controlling the market by creating massive anticipation but failing to fulfil it in a timely manner. Copyright allows them to do this, just like it allows them to create an enormous demand for translations, but then fail to satisfy it for many months. The IPKat doubts whether supporting legal action against a fanatic teenage Potter fan who appears to have made his translation for the sheer love of it is going to endear the publishers to the ‘real’ fans.