[HPFGU-OTChatter] NY Times article: Memo to the Dept. of Magical Copyright Enforcement

[Lee Kaiwen]

stacygalore blessed us with this gem On 11/08/2007 11:21:

> I read this article in the New York Times and thougt I would share it 
> with you all. My fake Prada bag from Chinatown looks better than these fakes.

OK, from my vantage point here in Taiwan, I'll make two comments. First, 
I don't think anybody is expected to believe these are "real" Harry 
Potters; just some folks trying to make a quick yuan churning out hacks. 
The fanfic community does the same thing, except that these guys are in 
it for the money, and they don't necessarily care about quality.

As to the strange plotline and stranger names ("Big Spinach"? "Naughty 
Bubble"?), trust me, they sound much better in the original language and 
cultural milieu. And even in the few excerpts the NYT printed I 
recognize borrowings from several traditional Chinese mythologies.

As to the unauthorized Chinese translations, well, what do you expect? 
The *authorized* Chinese translations have usually taken upwards of six 
months to hit the stores, and no true Harry Potter fan could be expected 
to wait that long. These pirates are just meeting market demand.

The smart thing to do would have been for Bloomsbury/Scholastic to have 
the Chinese translation nearly ready to go the day the English edition 
hit the streets. Get the authorized translation out sooner and you 
undercut the market for knock-offs.

Lee Kaiwen, Taiwan