Ten days ago,
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released in English. Strangley enough, ten days before that, it was released in China in full. However, if you live in China, don't get excited; while it may share the same name, there are by far different authors.
This isn't the first case of something like this happening. Several other fake
Harry Potter novels have made it big over there, including "Harry Potter and the Half-Blooded Relative Prince," "Harry Potter and the Hiking Dragon," "Harry Potter and the Chinese Empire," "Harry Potter and the Young Heroes," "Rich Dad, Poor Dad and Harry Potter," "Harry Potter and Leopard-Walk-up-to-Dragon," "Harry Potter and the Big Funnel," "Harry Potter and the Golden Armor," "Harry Potter and the Crystal Vase," and on and on.
Wei Bin is the editor of the Writers' Publishing House, which investigates book piracy. In his group's last survey in 2001, he discovered that as many as 30 to 40 percent of the books on sale in China may be pirated.
He was quoted saying:
Quote:
"The focus of the government is not to fight against piracy," Wei said. "It seems they fight harder for banned publications, like pornography, political books, such as things written about the leadership, the government, and historical matters like the Cultural Revolution, the Anti-Rightist Campaign.
"They maintain tight control over such things, but as literary books, such as the ones we identify as being pirated, when we report the matter to the relevant authorities, they settle matters by leaving them unsettled."
However, instead of getting better, it appears that as of now, piracy of
Deathly Hallows in China is only getting worse.
You can read more on the story
here.
Source:
IHT