Made in China: JK targets Potter fake
| News Media Commentary | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Made in China: JK targets Potter fake |
| Commentator: | Murdo Macleod for the "Scotsman." |
| Date(s): | August 19, 2007 |
| Venue: | online |
| Fandom: | Harry Potter |
| External Links: | Made in China: JK targets Potter fake |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Made in China: JK targets Potter fake is a 2007 article by Murdo Macleod for the "Scotsman."
Some Topics Discussed
- the Harry Potter books and Chinese bootlegs
- fans translating the books for themselves
- fanfiction
- slash
From the Article
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.
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."
Slash porn.
Lawyers for the promoter of the Harry Potter films are clamping down on so-called 'slash porn' featuring the world-famous boy wizard.
It is estimated that there are more than 700 websites worldwide publishing lurid homosexual tales about the lead character in the best-selling books by JK Rowling.
Mainly penned by women, the genre has seen Harry Potter caught in flagrante with a variety of other males featured in the series.
The authors steadfastly refuse to accept that their work is pornography, claiming instead it is an art form.
But now websites used by the 'slash porn' writers are being closed down after legal warnings.
The bizarre craze started about five years ago in the United States but it has now become such a huge global problem that a decision has been made to act.
But the move to shut down the sites has not been universally welcomed.
One online contributor recently wrote: "Some Harry Potter fans have had, for a long time, those kind of fantasies about the characters.
"Slash fans are not new nor rare. I understand that it goes against some policies to publish this kind of stuff but, again, people are allowed to have their own fantasies.
"If they can't put them on this website they'll just start one of their own."
A spokesman for AOL Time Warner, which owns the film rights to Harry Potter and which has been instrumental in cracking down on 'slash porn', said they were determined to maintain their character's image.
He added that it was their "moral obligation" to act: "This is especially true in the case of indecent infringement of any icon whose target audience is children.