You may recall from our
story last week that J.K. Rowling is involved in a legal battle with eBay over pirated
Harry Potter e-books being traded on the auction site. Last week Jo won a court order banning eBay's affiliate in India from allowing the illegal sales online.
In preparation for the release of
Deathly Hallows, Jo has
asked eBay to take an active role in stopping sales of illegal
Harry Potter e-books.
According to Jo’s lawyer:
Quote:
We and J.K. Rowling believe eBay should take preventative steps to avoid pirate goods being offered for sale to innocent fans.
We do take piracy very seriously and as always will take all reasonable steps to protect both the innocent fans and J.K. Rowling's legitimate rights. The innocent fan may think that they are purchasing the 'genuine' article only to find that it is fake, incomplete, contains inappropriate or pornographic language or images, viruses that affect their computers etc.
eBay, however, feels that they cannot block
Harry Potter e-books without affecting sales of other
Harry Potter books and merchandise. The site maintains that it is up to the publisher to let them know about illegal goods for sale.
A spokesperson for eBay said:
Quote:
We take this issue very seriously and we cooperate with a range of industries and copyright holders to protect their interests. A number of companies, including J.K. Rowling's, are signed up to our Verified Rights Owner programme, which is highly successful at protecting trademark rights.
It would be difficult to block such items (the e-books) without also blocking legitimate sales, like second-hand Harry Potter books or other merchandise.
According to piracy investigator David Price:
Quote:
Publishers know people are going to pirate this book and we shall see teams of people working to upload it. If you know where to look it will be available within hours.
Copies of
Half-Blood Prince translated into French, German, Spanish and Russian and were online within days of the book’s release.
The typical cost for the e-books is £1.
Fight the good fight, Jo. We're behind you.