Pirated Potter Books Sold in China

Posted on August 1, 2005

China's notoriety for piracy got another big boost with reports that an illegal version of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the latest Harry Potter novel, is already available. The BBC reports that the illegal version leaves out paragraphs and contains errors.

Sold for 20 Yuan (�1.40), the unofficial Chinese version was said to omit paragraphs and contain errors.

Thousands of fans have also posted their own German translations of the book onto an unofficial Potter website.

Author JK Rowling's boy wizard Harry Potter is wildly popular in China, where he is known as "Ha-li Bo-te".

Foreign companies say unofficial versions of goods such as books, movies and designer clothes cause them to lose billions of pounds in potential sales in China.

The USA Today reports that the official Chinese version of the book won't be published by the People's Literature Publishing House until October, 15th. It seems like they might have thwarted some of the piracy if the official Chinese book release had been more closely timed with the release in the UK and US.

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