The Internet has been described as the world's greatest library, with all the books on the floor. The new Harry Potter book is no longer among them after the first round of a legal battle in Germany this week, Derek Scally writes from Berlin.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the fourth book in the bestselling children's series about an apprentice wizard, went on sale last July with rioting parents and crying children all scrambling to get their hands on the 600-page volume.
Since the first book in the series was published three years ago, the adventures of the apprentice wizard have sold some 35 million copies worldwide. The new book sold out its initial English-language print run of over five million copies in days.
But anyone who still covets a first edition would be well advised to contact Berlin bookshops, where the latest Harry Potter book has been sitting piled-high and untouched since its publication. Make no mistake, German children are just wild about Harry. The first three books remain at the top of Germany's bestseller list this week, but they are the German translations. The translation of the fourth Harry Potter book has yet to be released and will only go on sale for the first time next month.
Rather than wait, the "now" generation of Potter fans threw caution and copyright to the wind and decided to translate the book themselves. Volunteer translators came forward, a mixed bunch of English language students and Potter fans, the youngest just 12. Days after the book went on sale in English, the first six chapters were available in a rough German translation on the Internet website of a Berlin computer specialist and Potter fan, Mr Bernd Kolemann (45). Word spread through the schoolyard grapevine and www.harry-auf-deutsch.de had soon registered 12,000 visitors.
But quicker than you can say www.copyright-infringement-auf-deutsch.de, the law intervened. Mr Kolemann received a letter from publishers Carsten Verlag, who own the German publishing rights to the book. They had obtained a court injunction forcing Mr Kolemann to remove the first six chapters from his website or face a DM500,000 (£200,000) fine and possible two-year prison term.
But this tale is far from over. Mr Kolemann's volunteer translators had already given him another nine chapters before the lawyers stepped in.
