Alexander at MobileRead ran across these gems—illegal Harry Potter 6 e-books for sale on eBay. What got me was a line in one ad saying that the book was “in the public domain.”
When I dropped by around 11 p.m., at least several hours after Alexander’s discovery, eBay was still teeming with illegal Potters, including Books 1-4 for a “Buy It Now” price of $6.95 “in PDF format to download.”
My advice to attorney Neil Blair is, “Throw the ‘book’ at them if they knowingly broke the law.” If the Potter people can get their act together and do legal e-books, Rowling fans will line up to report such blatant violations of copyright law. Keep in mind, of course, that DRM wouldn’t have helped in the slightest. The for-sale books’ origins go back to pulped-wood. The very best form of DRM would be reasonably priced Potter e-books and the encouragement of fans to report sleazy profiteers, the very worst of whom could be aggressively prosecuted as examples.
