When the last installment of the Harry Potter book
series was released on July 21, many people around the world worked
to translate the book. With officially translated versions not
scheduled for release until later this year, they seek to share the
text with eager readers.
However, regardless of intentions, this sort of action is
illegal, and French authorities took the first step in shutting it
down.
According to the French media, a 16-year-old student from
Aix-en-Provence was arrested on Monday after allegedly posting a
pirated translation of the latest J.K. Rowling book on the
Internet.
The fan was apparently too impatient to wait for Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows to be published in French, so
he decided to translate all 784 pages by himself. According to
Le Parisien, Rowling alerted her French publishers,
Gallimard, to the unofficial version. Police were "particularly
surprised" by its quality, which they said was
"semi-professional.”
J.K. Rowling's lawyers said networks of other illegal
Potter translators span the world, seeking to profit from
the boy wizard's global appeal, and growing more sophisticated with
every new book.
The French teenager, whose name was not released because he is a
minor, was picked up Monday following a complaint from police in
Paris and was released Tuesday after questioning. The boy could
face charges for violating intellectual property rights.
The same problem exists in China as well. Fans who couldn't wait
another three months for the Chinese version of the Deathly
Hallows, decided to organize groups to translate the tome,
despite the fact that translation rights and publishing rights for
the Harry Potter series were exclusively obtained by
China's People's Literature Publishing House.
Chinese fans managed to translate the entire book in less than a
week, and put it online for sharing. After alerted about the French
case, however, many Chinese translators started to worry.
A fan surnamed Gao told Shanghai-based Oriental Morning
Post yesterday that he was notified of the case by his
friends. He is a passionate translator and worked on some parts of
Harry Potter in his spare time.
"I will possibly withdraw my translation text from the
Internet," he said. But he also said that there are so many pirate
translators in China, J.K. Rowling's reps are unlikely to sue him
next. "They'll at most sue some business websites that posted the
translation."
A Fudan University student surnamed Xiao is a member of the
campus Harry Potter Association. He recalled that when the sixth
book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, was released
in 2005, his association was the first to do a translation. "But
Ms. Rowling knew about it, and her reps protested against our
university, which created a big controversy. So we decided not to
do this kind of translation this year."
Another enthusiastic Potter fan, now working at
Shanghai Dragon TV, thought the online translation was sub-par.
"Many pieces are flat, even just plot instructions," she said.
Regarding the French case, she said that if that was for financial
gain and caused damage to the publishing house, then the man should
be held legally responsible.
???
People's Literature Publishing House is going to release the
Chinese version of the
Deathly Hallows on October 28 of
this year. As the biggest victim of the pirated translation, the
publishing house's official said even though they tried to stop the
netizens' conduct, it was a failure.
"We have been saying for years that we are going to take some
netizens and websites to court, but actually we cannot do anything
to prevent the pirated online translation. We don't have the online
publishing rights in our hands, because Ms. Rowling holds all the
Internet publishing rights."
???
Sun Shunlin, a director for People's Literature Publishing House,
said the French case should be a warning to Chinese fans. "It is
illegal to post private translations of the book online," he said.
Though he understands netizens' love and passion for the book, the
pirate book speculators and various websites have made use of their
work for profit.
According to Chinese law, translators must first obtain the
permission from an author and then pay the author afterwards if
they made profits from translation.
The Chinese search giant Baidu.com, which was been constantly
sued by music companies for copyright infringement, now hosts the
widest range of pirated and private translations of Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows on its Bulletin Board System.
Its reps equivocally said they would ask for lawyers' advice before
starting to delete posts.
Hogwarts Translation College, the very popular Harry Potter
fanclub website that finished translating in a week, has already
taken down all its own download pages. The members of the club said
they did the translation just for sharing and exchanges among
English-learners and Potter fans.
(China.org.cn by Zhang Rui, August 10, 2007)
