Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, the latest and last of the wildly popular Harry Potter books that is due to go on sale this weekend, has hit BitTorrent. Various torrents of the novel consist of photographed pages (as above) with reading quality that isn’t perfect, but for desperate fans readable enough. Whilst the validity of the hype surrounding Harry Potter may be subject to debate, what the leaking of the book does demonstrate is that the days of the mainstream media and publishers strictly controlling the dissemination of information has well and truly past; simply where there is a fan with a will, there is a way.
For educational purposes only, the Harry Potter book can be found by searching The Pirate Bay.
(via Torrent Freak)
See all
Post
I wonder how long it will take before it is on Scribd.com
Why do you report criminal activity like this? It only promotes it, and causes people who would normally not seek out material like this to consider it. Shame on you.
surprised it took so long
Advertisespace
Promoting criminal behavior?, there wouldn’t be one reader of TechCrunch who has never heard of BitTorrent and file sharing, so it’s not exactly a new subject for them.
i love Harry Potter
http://www.vdoob.com/english
I don’t exactly agree with promoting this either. This would have popped up on Digg anyway, but this one thing that will never have protection.
Everybody knows about it but it seems like nobody wants to talk about it. It’s like a taboo kind of thing.
BTW, it is almost the same case with the movies and pretty much everything that attracts attention. Pirates are hunting for every piece of information on the web nowadays.
was the techstars/ycomb post taken down? I read it in my rss reader and it is no longer available.
Because something’s not legal doesn’t make it wrong. We live in a new age where ideas, information and media are free. If you like it or not is beside the point. Personally I feel it’s morally wrong to charge money for something that can be coppied into infinity. And yes, that can’t be done with books and cd’s and dvd’s. But it can with it’s content.
There’s nothing sacret about law. They come and go, and it’s about time a few of them leave because quite clearly they weren’t ment to cover content that can be coppied to infinity and back.
I think reporting on this issue is fine, but giving people the tools to go to find it isn’t right. And just because you’ll find it somewhere else gives you no right to post this.
Why don’t we start posting links to movies not yet out so we can get a look at them as well?
I am sure Duncan knew the first comments or the 90% of the comment section would be as it is going now. Posts like these come up to basically sense the community pulse.
Who cares if it’s legal. That’s not the issue. The most important question is: Does Harry get killed?
Who has the time to photograph all those pages? Sheesh.
This is surely an irrelevant post.
Its’s deathly Hallows, not Hollows… you can see it says Hallows in the photo - just a heads up.
I can’t imagine trying to read an entire book by looking at photos of another book on my computer.
That is some serious die-hard dedication. to both create it and use it.
Crazy.
Hey Duncan, what’s BitTorrent?
Advertisespace, you whiney dumbass…
Good catch Duncan.
Bad post. Maybe you can delete it.
@10
Interesting philosophy, I have all the Wilco CD’s that you guys gave out for free.
Firstly I really like your blog, though I have never commented.
Please Please Please remove this post. Harry Potter fans love their books. No doubt many will read it (illegally) though they will anyways be buying the book I am sure. The problem is simply that I do not want people having their MSN nicknames telling me that “Harry Potter killed Voldemort, and Harry was killed by Snape” or even through posts like yours. This is pathetic. Please understand.
Giving the link to the torrent site for ‘educational purposes’, why not say that you frikkin’ want more hits? Please, it is a sincere request.
Is this relevant to web 2.0?
Duncan, you are now an accessory to the crime. You can’t skirt the issue by prefixing it with “for educational purposes only”.
“For educational purposes only, the vault combination at First Bank and Securities on Main Street is 34-2-16. The guard change is at 9 PM, and the backdoor will be left unlocked.”
Yeah, good luck dodging a criminal complaint on that one!
I would be very surprised if this story doesn’t appear on the mainstream news soon anyway (if it’s not already). And it goes to show that ‘content’ providers still haven’t managed to lock down their works before release (surely an issue to consider if you’re in the content business) and that it’s not just an issue for the film industry…
HARRY POTTER DIES!!
I seen this book on the torrents over 3 months ago on the torrent sites…
Kind of slow reporting this….
plus the movie is out on torrents…..
huh?
How much money does it take to live off a story? Are we the ones that promote and then complain? Lets not be to hard on someone that passes on info. It is after all, free to all, after some time. Maybe we should all wait, after all, do you like supporting rich people?
Wilco, are you crazy?
Like it or not, the AUTHOR of that book gets PAID FOR THE WORK THEY DO through SALES OF THAT BOOK.
Noy paying for your copy deprives the author of their profit. Downloads without renumeration are not onlly illegal, but immoral.
Now don’t get me wrong, the publishing industry is just as bad as the recording industry. They make too much money off of other people’s work.
But buying your copy of the work is how the author gets paid. That is the bottom line.
SNAPE DIES KILLING VOLDEMORT SO THAT HARRY CAN LIVE
They are spending $20million for security to protect against this kind of thing. They have every right to “throw a fit” as do the readers who don’t want to know what’s going on until they have the book in hand and are reading it for themselves.
The spoilers who are out there like BitTorrent and Jesse above are beyond disgusting, IMO. I wish they could all be told the final scores of the sports games they sit down to watch and see how they like it.
And Duncan I am one TC reader who has never heard of BitTorrent. I don’t appreciate that you threw this is my face today. What has it got to do with the usual TC content that I come here for???
the owner just wants to score in Google knowing very well this will be a very much wanted search term over the next couple of days
ummm……who gives a fuck?
Ducan,
Can you please explain what is ‘educational’ about telling us that someone is doing something illegal and telling us what site it is on?? It’s the same as a major newspaper reporting that on the rise in carjacking and explaining that the tool used is a common 1/4 screw driver, that you can get at home depot, and describing in detail how to steal a car. It is the same stupid writing that Toronto Life magazine once wrote about how to get an illegal gun from the US into Canada. Or when the National Geographic channel has a special on ‘tanks’ and shows the weak spots on a US tank and the best way to destroy them. Or ‘How to make a mail box pipe bomb’ etc. etc. Just because other media sources report how to break the law or do stupid things, doesn’t mean you have to jump on board and report it. And of course I’ve heard of bit torrent and file sharing. I’ve heard of kiddy porn too, but it doesn’t mean that I advocate it.
I am an anti piracy consultant. Tracking this leak, following are the details.
Update: The PDF Version, Doc Versions are also Available.
The Conversion of the the PDF and doc versions into a audio book should be out within the next hour.
Authenticated as the original not a fan fiction.
@Advertisespace:
Calm down.
-Brian
@Dawn
Harry Potter doesn’t die… I was just playing…
oops…
JK
Brian, you surely ain’t a Harry Potter fan; are you? I doubt if you have even read the all the HP books.
For heaven’s sake Duncan you can disable comments!
cool and calm but frustrating as a technologist. These publishers should have gone in for a better electronic security.
I have all the Digital Finger prints and Digital forensics details about the images published.
But the laws and legislations deter anti piracy consultants like me from deploying countermeasures.
all my posts are data driven.
There are no laws or rules that say we cannot talk about crimes that are taking place. Sure, putting books, music etc…up for free download is illegal. But there are no laws saying we can’t talk about it. Newscasters talk about this stuff everyday. Whether it be rape, murder, thievery etc…Just because we’re now in the internet and not on tv doesn’t change anything. If people want to steal something that badly, they don’t ‘need’ techcrunch articles or any other website to tell them how. They’ll find out how to get what they want, regardless of where the information comes from.
Whether or not people have heard of torrents is completely and totally irrelevant. A large majority of TC readers have heard of torrents because its part of the technology industry-and there have probably been countless articles that bring up torrent use written BY techcrunch users as well.
Spoilers are also irrelevant. If you don’t wanna know what happens in the books, then don’t read posts that talk about the book!
Just because there is a link (there isn’t a link now, but there might have been?) or a key word to tell you where to obtain illegal content doesn’t break any laws. I can tell someone where to buy a gun (legally or illegally)-that doesn’t mean their going to commit a crime. Also, a pro for the torrent controversy-many pieces of information, such as Old Time Radio (of which I am a huge fan) are much easier obtained through a torrent rather than scouring websites for hours trying to find free ‘legit’ downloads.
Countermeasures I meant was busting these illegal torrents.
At least remove the link in the main post that goes directly to the torrent.
Brutal.
Just downloaded it, looks like the real deal.
I couldn’t care less, though.
BEATRIX KILLS RON!!
this is not a torrent. Files uploaded on free files hosting servers. Either a complaint has to made as per law. or hack the server and delete the link which is possible if the law enforcement agencies permit Depending upon the response from the hosting companies.
All my posts are data driven.
Boo for this report! Save the ending and details so that people can enjoy the box. Do not spoil the end of the book for people.
Arrington,
Your excuse is lame. You’re promoting illegal activity by placing the link on your site. It’s no different than putting a link on your sife to illegal on line gambling sites. Situation ethics for a lawyer. How novel. NOT ! ANything to bring the creaders in and satisy your advertisers.
Pitiful to say the least
DON WILSON
and anyone else who downloads this is a THIEF. PERIOD !
I can’t possibly see how reading an 800-page novel online could be worth saving a whopping 18 bucks and getting a few-days lead on B&N. So I don’t think the Torrent will cut much into sales.
Long time reader, first time commentor. I love this site, don’t start my day without it.
It does an excellent job, as it does with this post….except for the last line.
“For educational purposes only, the Harry Potter book can be found by searching The Pirate Bay. (via Torrent Freak)”
Really? You did seem to have put some thought into it. So why didn’t you just go with…”For covering my ass legally, blah blah blah”. Both, unnecessary and distasteful.
I don’t see why everyone is getting their panties all bunched up.
If your swayed to download the book because someone posted it on here or on Digg, than you’ve got far worse problems to worry about.
I just think it’s funny to see how much harder it is to keep such a thing on lockdown considering some of the stories I’ve seen about the extraordinary measures being taken to make sure the book isn’t leaked.
Could you at least spell it correctly: Hallows