Will you read the leaked copy of the Deathly Hallows?

[Janus%TheDoorman]

Well, the Deathly Hallows was leaked via bittorent overnight, in PDF form, and as photos of the book, page by page. For those of you demanding blood, don't worry, the guy forgot to remove the EXIF data, so he should be getting hauled in very shortly.

Either way, I'm curious what people think, or plan to do about this.

[Young Val]

i know i keep saying i'm leaving the internet, and then not doing it. but that's how i voted anyway.

i won't read the leaked copy. there is something (for serious lack of a better word) magical about holding a book in your hands, and having part of the reading experience be tangible. i dislike reading books online (i've been known to do it--public domain works and classics online are great ways to read something i've got a hankering for, but don't want to buy) but not with something like this.


the thing that makes me really upset about this isn't so much that a copy leaked, but that it gives amo to people who want to spoil the experience for others.

[Rei]

Kelly, it's the magic of paper. The ancient tradition of making books with pages and ink and covers causes the experience of reading to never be full when the words are digital.

And for that reason, as well as having waited so long, I will certainly NOT be reading the leaked copy online. If I can wait years to read this book, then I can wait a few more days. And then it will be so much better because I'll be reading it with everyone else, discovering what happens with all of them.

[Eaquae Legit]

No, I will not be reading it. And if anyone on pweb posts spoilers, I will abuse my mod-powers and ban their ass.

[zeroguy]

Does just reading the spoilers count as reading it? I've seen and read certain pages to know what the spoilers are, but I probably won't read anything else, seeing as I haven't read the ones before it...

For those of you demanding blood, don't worry, the guy forgot to remove the EXIF data, so he should be getting hauled in very shortly.

Exif data doesn't contain the person's name or location (closest I can think of is camera make/model and date/time taken), so this confuses me.

And as for that last option, seriously, potter fans might want to be careful of what they look at for the next few days...

[wizzard]

What I don't get is the people who "care so much about Harry Potter", and are so excited about it that they can't wait a few more days, but for some reason decide not to financially support it by buying it legally. (And I do realize that some people will still buy the actual book after downloading the leaked copy, but some won't)

[neo-dragon]

I don't think that anyone who claims to be a HP fan won't buy the book even if they do download it first. I would guess that pretty much everyone who downloads the book will still buy it, or were not going to buy it anyway. Although, if there's ever been a book for which financial support isn't an issue it's this one.

I've never understood why fans spoil themselves though. After waiting so long, why not wait just a little bit longer to actually have a copy of the book in your hands rather than reading it off a monitor or just getting the spoilers off a website?

[Petra456]

I'm not leaving the internet, but i'm being very careful to stay away from sites that might spoil it for me. I'm really hoping pweb isn't one of those.

[Jayelle]

No, I will not be reading it. And if anyone on pweb posts spoilers, I will abuse my mod-powers and ban their ass.

With the full support of at least one other mod.

[Dr. Mobius]

Yep, I have no self-control what-so-ever. I didn't get the pdfs though, just found a site with a summary of what happens, who dies and how, where are they now?, etc.

It was kinda funny actually. Some guy was blogging about how torrents are den of thieves and how all this piracy pisses him off. Then he goes and links to the spoiler page.

I'll still read the *real* book though and will most likely enjoy it. Knowing the ending ahead of time has never ruined a good read for me when it's happened before.

[anonshadow]

Me, neither. I'm not reading the pdf or the spoilers, but I've been known to skip two hundred pages in a book so that I know what happens and can either adjust to the disapointment or comfort myself knowing that it works out well in the end. (I won't do that for Harry Potter, but I did do that for Kushiel's Justice.)

[zeroguy]

I don't think that anyone who claims to be a HP fan won't buy the book even if they do download it first. I would guess that pretty much everyone who downloads the book will still buy it, or were not going to buy it anyway.

I'm pretty sure (almost) nobody is going to download these images as a replacement for actually getting the book. Aside from the actual intentions of those downloading it (it seems the main motivation is trying to spoil it for potter fans; at least, that's my impression), the quality of the images is horrible, and pretty unreadable in some places. You think trying to read scanned pages in a PDF on a computer is bad, keep in mind these are pictures taken with a digital camera, generally not right up next to the book. It seemed clear to me that the intention was just to reveal spoilers and prove said revalations are true; not the normal getting-stuff-for-free. Otherwise, they probably would have scanned it.

Also, I forgot to mention before, the only thing that surprised me a little was that the other copies I've seen before this one were fake. Some people made entire actual book-length fakes and tried to pass them off. I'm sure they were much worse than Rowling, but still... that's a lot of writing for little reason.

[ratesjul]

Where's the "No" option without the rider of not caring about the book or leaving the internet until Saturday?

I won't be reading spoilers, and I won't be reading the pages. I'd much rather read the story all the way through on paper. (This is also why I don't read preview chapters as often as I used to, for other authors.)

[neo-dragon]

Where's the "No" option without the rider of not caring about the book or leaving the internet until Saturday?

I won't be reading spoilers, and I won't be reading the pages. I'd much rather read the story all the way through on paper. (This is also why I don't read preview chapters as often as I used to, for other authors.)

My feelings exactly. I will sometimes skip preview chapters though because it's kinda like watching a movie trailer, you know there won't be real spoilers. Not to mention the fact that my skimming the first chapter of SotG on hatrack prevented the book from being published with a serious continuity error. If I had done that with a Harry Potter book I'd probably be famous.

[powerfulcheese04]

I'm actually pretty concerned that someone in the airport or on my plane is going to spoil it for me.

I have about 24 hours of travel starting Friday at 1:30. I'm concerned someone will either (a)have read spoilers online and talk about it at the Joberg airport or on the plane or (b) have read the book by the time I land in Atlanta at 7:30AM and spoil it then.

[Luet]

Wear earplugs whenever possible? Seriously!

[Young Val]

i was just about to say: ipod, ipod, ipod.

[Mahatma]

I'm actually pretty concerned that someone in the airport or on my plane is going to spoil it for me.

I have about 24 hours of travel starting Friday at 1:30. I'm concerned someone will either (a)have read spoilers online and talk about it at the Joberg airport or on the plane or (b) have read the book by the time I land in Atlanta at 7:30AM and spoil it then.

I have a similar problem (though not as severe I suppose). I'm getting it at midnight, not opening it, then sleeping. My best friend, who's leaving to study in Australia on Saturday, conveniently (:roll:), is picking me up at 10am and we're going to the airport to see her off. Hopefully hopefully hopefully nothing gets ruined at the airport, and then my friend's mom is driving me home, and I will lock myself in my room to finish it, telling my parents to ignore my cries of emotion. If this doesn't work, I don't know what I'll do.

[Rei]

I suspect many of us can empathise.

[Young Val]

Brent, that absolutely made my day, and i can't WAIT to email it to the girls at work tomorrow. we were conveying our collective panic via email all day long.

[neo-dragon]

I don't know if it's necessary to be that paranoid. HBP had been out for several weeks before I read it, and even though I didn't go to any special lengths to avoid spoilers in the meantime, I didn't encounter any. Of course, I know there'll be more buzz for this one since it's the final book.

I was spoiled about Cedric's death when I was right in the middle of reading GoF though. Of course, the book had been out for 5 years at that point so I can't blame the people I was with for discussing it casually.