B.S. - Hacker claims Harry Potter's alleged ending on Web

Update: July 19, 2007 @ 6:36pm

Now how did I miss this bit of news?

New Harry Potter Book Leaked Onto Bit Torrent

Honestly, like I say later in this post, I think there are going to be tons of "leaks".

However, some are quite dangerous to your computer and bit torrent can be. The release date is so close that it pretty much defeats the whole purpose.

BTW, I did get a leak of the epilogue and let me just say I'm not telling. Wait until the book is released, but I did smile when I read it. Either way, thanks my elitist Oxford-educated friend ;).

Basically, don't bother with bit torrents. These leaks probably have bad stuff bundled with them and, from what the article says, the scan is low quality too. It just might be a fake. Fake or not, since this book as been on pre-order for months now, I doubt that Perez is right that J.K. Rowling or anyone at Scholastic is "majorly bummed."

If you just have to know, contact this guy: The Voice of Harry Potter Can Keep a Secret

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Okay, I wrote a Harry Potter post back in August when JK Rowling said more major characters were set to die in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows which is the end of the series. Of course, this set everyone speculating whether it would be Harry or one or both of his friends, Hermione or Ron.

I'm going to be honest here. I got the last Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince as a gift. A friend had finished it, she was leaving Korea and traveling on. She passed it on to me. I feel bad that I've not yet finished reading it and it has been collecting dust under my bed since late August.*

With that 'Half-Blood Prince unread under my bed' guilt that I've been carrying these last few months, I thought this was an interesting headline: Hacker claims Harry Potter's alleged ending on Web.

I went over to the hacker site to read the alleged ending.

I'm making the following points because the hacker's site says this:

So we make this spoiler to make reading of the upcoming book useless and boring...

It's amazing to see how much people inside the company have copies and drafts of this book.

Curiosity killed the cat.

First, the hacker mentions he used "the easiest" way to hack in was how he got it. I don't think it's "amazing to see" at all.

Now my thing is in a huge money making enterprise like Harry Potter and with full knowledge that people are going to try to hack, steal, bribe and engage in all sorts of deals to get their hands on the top secret ending. If I were in the ranks of the people that matter at Bloomsbury Publishing, I would have some computers with moderate protection, because you can't make it too easy for the hackers. These computers would have decoy copies of the final book saved there.

Has this guy never seen Star Wars: A New Hope? They let them get away in the Millennium Falcon and then tracked them to the rebel base. It was there that the Empire armed with the Death Star tried to destroy them!

Same thing here, except that, as far as I know, the hacker hasn't been blown up.

If I were on this project there would be decoy after decoy set up to put people off the trail. If it was that easy to get it to and there were that many copies floating about, then it's not the real ending.

I'd be amazed that many people have genuine draft copies at all. I think this hacker has been duped.

But if he's correct, then I know who dies. However, I'm still buying and reading the book.

More links:
BBC News: Hacker claims Potter book spoiler
The Money Times: Hacker claims to have Potter plot

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*In my defense, it's been a busy year of playing the roles of both grad student and college instructor...now that it's over I think I'll be picking up many things I dropped when school started last August.

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