The 'fake' book seven

This is a peculiar situation. There's a 'fake' copy of DH floating around the internet, and also apparantly in some bookshops. It's actually a fanfiction, a very good one by Melindaleo, entitled "The Seventh Horcrux".

I thought I'd make a post just in case anyone had seen this fake copy and was feeling inclined to read it. I would say - yes, do read it, but in the form it was originally intended, as a fanfiction available on phoenixsong.net.

Here's what PS.net have said about this situation:

Quote :

The Admin Team of PhoenixSong.net have recently learned that there is a "leaked" file of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows floating around the internet, specifically in bit torrent form. While people obviously have different opinions on "spoilers" in general, this one is especially troublesome because it is actually a plagiarized version of our own Melindaleo's fan fic, "The Seventh Horcrux", available legitimately here at PhoenixSong: http://www.phoenixsong.net/fanfiction/story/3517/ Please be aware that Melindaleo was in no way involved in re-titling her fan fic as the seventh book or in trying to pass it off as a leaked copy of the seventh book. Someone else did this without her knowledge or permission, and she has been quite upset and worried, especially about the fact that people may be being duped by this situation.

Plagiarism (stealing someone's work and passing it off as belonging to someone else) is a serious crime and one that shouldn't be taken lightly. If you encounter posts about this story elsewhere, please share this information in any way you feel you can -- private blogs, posts, whatever. Because this is being shared in a bit torrent format, it is especially difficult to get it removed from sites as a stolen work, but perhaps we can at least all help get the *real* author/title information to people instead. Thanks, all!

I'll just echo what they've said and if you see on another site someone talking about this 'leaked copy' just copy that text and set them straight.

It's kind of weird that people believe something leaked on the internet could be real though.

that fake fan fiction is rarther annoying becuase everyone at my school knows im obsessed with HP and this annoying person in year 8 keeps saying ive read DH wanna know what happens hagrid dies harry dies polly im like are shut up annoying person if that happens i will find out myself + you downloaded a fan fiction stupid lol! yeh anyway he annoys me

Ah but at least you know it's a fic lol.

Melinda's had a fair bit of publicity out of this - she's been written about in a few online newspapers, and she appeared on this past episode of Leaky's podcast. I've not listened yet, but it'll be interesting to see what she says about it all.