I’m Just Wild About Harry, or The Whole World’s Going to Potter
SPOILER WARNING: None of the links below reveal the plot of Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, however, if you go on a clicking frenzy, you might stumble on some shocking revelations.
As an ardent Harry Potter fan, I am looking forward with bated breath to July 21st. I cannot wait to hold a copy of book seven, and am prepared to drink my first cup of kopi luwak so I can stay awake and finish it.
Unfortunately, there are some out there who don’t share my appreciation of anticipation — and they’re using Web 2.0 technologies to try and spoil the fun for the rest of us. Indulging in some truly dark mischief, someone has taken pictures of the book and has published them on photobucket and on the BitTorrent (peer-to-peer file sharing) site the pirate bay.
Salon’s Machinist tech blog spells it out.
Of course, Scholastic has already moved ahead to take legal action, but dare I say that the mischief has been managed already? JK Rowling herself appears unphased:
“Some, perhaps, will read this and take the view that all publicity is good publicity,” she said. “However, spoilers won’t stop people buying the book, they never have — all it will do is diminish their pleasure in the book.”
The good news is that these spoil sports are learning that their efforts can backfire in a big way. Digg users are already on the case — testament to the power of social networks!
Del.icio.us, 
Digg, 
Technorati, 
Furl, 
Reddit,
Spurl
RSS
Death Eater said,
on July 19th, 2007 at 10:01 am
Thank Goodness it is finally here. I hope Professor Severus Snape makes the cut. I don’t want him to die he’s my favorite.
tobs said,
on July 19th, 2007 at 10:47 am
I guess it looks like JK Rowling didn’t believe in the magic of Harry Potter? She should have turned to magic to prevent any revelations of how the story ends. Heck…where are her book of spells when she needs them? She could learn a trick or two from JJ Abrams when it comes to creating a buzz and really hiding the details of what is going to happen.
Adam said,
on July 19th, 2007 at 10:49 am
Achio Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows!
Dragant said,
on July 19th, 2007 at 2:29 pm
Not sure why this would be called Web 2.0? All someone did was post the book pages on a site and then someone used peer-to-peer file sharing to pirate the book.
Peer-to-peer file sharing has been around for years. It has evolved from Napster to now Bittorrent sites.
Jay Ferrari said,
on July 19th, 2007 at 8:29 pm
Would it be safe to say that p2p is an example of 2.0 — in terms of it being community/user driven? The term caught up with the trend, which as you point out, has been evolving for years.
Lenika Shah said,
on July 20th, 2007 at 7:26 am
Jay..nice one.
P2P is an early example of 2.0 since a bunch of users get together and share information on their hard drives. Of course, the fact that the leaked images were hosted on photobucket and Digg users found a way of perhaps identifying the person who caused the leak is further evidence.
Community drives websites such as http://www.mugglenet.com and http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org are another example of how 2.0 technologies have definitely encouraged the hype.