News / Entertainment
Teenager arrested for illegal Harry Potter translation
A 16-year-old was arrested for translating the seventh and final Harry Potter book and posting it online. The French boy posted his translation of all 759 pages of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” before the book was released on July 21 and faces intellectual property violation charges.
The boy was picked up Monday and spent a night in jail but police say that it doesn’t appear as if he sought profit from the translation. “He just wanted to get the book online,” said Oliver Rothe, a prosecutor. Rothe said the boy translated the book himself and didn’t have any help.
Lawyers for Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling say that there many other illegal translators and they are getting more and more sophisticated. The French agency for fighting counterfeiting is launching an investigation and the publishing house that is translating the official French version of the last Harry Potter book offered their support.
