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Do Potter pushers enjoy the existence of pirated copies?
July 21, 2005 | 10:23 am
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By David Rothman
That’s a “sneaky suspicion” of Branko Collin, who feels that unground Potter books will “fertilize a market of buyers of the paper book. That is still no reason not to bring out an official ebook, though.”
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Comments:
It has been suggested by many people over the years that Microsoft benefited by the widespread pirating of Windows 3.1. It certainly contributed to the relative lack of interest in OS/2. As for approbation, I doubt anyone in Redmond would admit to that.
At this point, Occam’s Razor suggests the publishers of HP novels don’t need any additional seeding via the underground e-books and, therefore, aren’t any more likely to delight in their interest than Microsoft might at cracks allowing people to convert Windows XP Home Edition over to Windows XP Professional. The boulder is already rolling downhill as fast as anyone might reasonably expect it to.
On the other hand — and aside from the obvious issue of illegality — there’s the question of dilution of trademark when unsanctioned items hit the market. It’s not just about copyrights, it’s also about the trademark.
I guess any of my previous comments on the HP e-book issue should have included the fact that I, too, wish the Potter books would be (officially) released in e-book format. But I also realize the publishers don’t have a financial model tied to DRM that they can wrap their hands around while at the same time feel they can adequately control. And it’s still their legal property to do — or not do — precisely as they wish, despite a relative small but vocal minority.
The world of Harry Potter is the literary equivalent of Paramount’s Star Trek franchise or George Lucas’s Star Wars franchise. And I think everyone is well aware how seriously they take their copy rights.
John