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French teen not to be sued for pirate Potter translation
2007-08-12
A French high-school student who posted a rogue French-language translation of the latest Harry Potter book on the Internet will not be sued, the French publisher involved said Saturday. The decision to not seek compensation from the 16-year-old boy was made in agreement with author J.K. Rowling, the company, Gallimard, said. The unnamed teenager, from the southern city of Aix en Provence, had told police after being arrested and briefly detained a week ago that he had not sought to make money off his unauthorised translation. Investigators were reportedly struck by the "near-professional" quality of the boy's work. The website that had hosted the translation has since been taken offline. Gallimard said it and Rowling "only wanted to denounce organised translators' networks that act in concerted fashion to directly or indirectly take advantage of the public's keen interest," not fans. A spokeswoman for Gallimard said Saturday the publisher had lodged a police complaint to allow for the investigation but emphasised "the aim was never financial; it is only aimed to protect authors' rights". Police hoped to question several more people in the case. Those responsible for the fraud could theoretically face heavy fines. The first chapters of the pirate translation were available for downloading shortly after the July 21 release of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" and the complete text appeared within a few days. The official French translation is due for publication in October, under the title "Harry Potter et les Reliques de la Mort". Gallimard said France's anti-piracy squad had spotted the student's unauthorised Potter as part of a probe into organised networks that post pirated book translations online. It said it and Rowling supported the investigation "to remind people that piracy harms the basic rights of authors and creators." The first six books about the boy wizard have sold 325 million copies worldwide, in 64 languages. The Harry Potter finale sold more than 11 million copies on the day of its international release, although fans had to dodge Internet leaks that gave away the plot.
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