China seeks to avoid curse of Harry Potter pirates

  September 18, 2003 at 8:14 AM ET
  Geri     The Leaky Cauldron (via MSNBC)
 

China, seeking to avoid the curse of copyright pirates, will launchopens in new window the fifth Harry Potter book in Chinese 10 days early, offering a reward to anyone who reports fake copies.

The People's Literature Publishing House said the translation, editing and printing of 800,000 copies of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix had been accelerated so they could go on sale nationwide on Sunday, more than 10 days ahead of the scheduled release date. Unauthorised translations of J.K. Rowling's book were available in China about a month after the June release. The boy wizard is so popular in China that copies of at least one book of entirely phoney Potter tales, with no English equivalent, has been snatched up by fans.

Liu Yushan, head of the publishing house, told reporters:

''We welcome readers to actively report any copyright violations or illegal activity and if the report is verified we will give a reward."

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