Houston Community News >> Wizards Work Their Magic on Harry Potter Translations
8/15/2007--Translation is not
an art taught at Hogwarts - but impatient Harry Potter fans in the country
posted the Chinese version of the last installment of the series online as fast
as the Hogwarts Express.
The official Chinese version hits bookstores late in October but fans can
already download dozens of translations of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the
Deathly Hallows - all done by young wizards who worked their magic within hours
of the release of the English version last month.
The first full-length translated version is said to have appeared on the
Internet on July 21, the day of the book's global release. Links for downloads
could be found as early as 11:44 pm that day, or within 15 hours after the
English copies were released in the country.
Teenagers on their summer holidays reportedly bought the English copies as soon
as bookstores opened, and started translating. They worked in teams and round
the clock, eating nothing but instant noodles, according to messages they left
on the Internet.
The most famous teams include the Hogwarts Institute of Translation and the
International Wizard Alliance. The latter is an online club of more than 2,000
core members, led by a 15-year-old boy known as "wizardHali", whose call for
naming July 21 the "World Harry Potter Day" has won the support of more than
100,000 netizens.
Their translations might have different styles but all versions followed
standards set by official translations of the previous six books in terms of
names and magic jargon like "muggle".
For fear of copyright disputes, all put up a notice in their works saying they
were only meant for sharing: "We translated the book because we love Harry, and
we do not intend to use it for commercial purposes."
But there might still be legal problems. The Chinese People's Publishing House,
authorized to publish official Chinese versions of all the seven books,
reportedly said it may "take legal measures" to deal with unauthorized
translations.
Pirated book versions based on online translations can be found in some places
for 10 yuan ($1.3) or less a copy.
There is a precedent in the form of a case in France.
According to the French media, a 16-year-old student from Aix-en-Provence has
been arrested after allegedly posting a pirated translation of the latest J.K.
Rowling book on the Internet.
The boy apparently couldn't wait for the French version, so he decided to
translate all 784 pages himself.
According to Le Parisien, Rowling alerted her French publishers, Gallimard, to
the unofficial version. Police were "particularly surprised" by its quality,
which they said was "semi-professional".
The teenager could face charges for violating intellectual property rights.
But Frank Zhang, a lawyer at the Beijing office of the New York-based firm
LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene and MacRae, said the Chinese boys and girls who translated
the book and pasted the translations online were not violating any copyright law
if they didn't do it for profit. It is the websites that will shoulder legal
responsibility if they make revenues by using the translations, he said.
(Contributed by China Daily)