In yet another example of how non-physical property is almost impossible to protect with traditional copyrights, it turns out that the final book of J.K. Rowling’s wildly popular “Harry Potter” series has been leaked to torrent sites.

The Deathly Hollows

Days before the books official release date, pirates and enthusiasts alike are downloading scanned copies of the American edition of the book. According to TorrentFreak the quality of the scans aren’t that great, in fact some pages are just barely readable without a little help from Photoshop.

This hasn’t seemed to dissuade some people from going through lengths to snag themselves a copy. Especially after so many fake torrents have been popping up over the last few weeks.

Web 2.0 Roundup

The most interesting point to be made from this story is that where there is a will, there is a way. Whoever made this torrent did so by scanning individual pages of the manuscript and uploading them. This is quite a bit of work for no real, discernible gain. The point that owners of non-physical intellectual property should take note of is that the price of popularity is understanding that there will always be those who get a hold of your material through improper channels.

Your best course of action is to find a way to mitigate the financial lose, and recognize the fact that anyone who is willing to use Photoshop and a magnifying glass to read your book is a true fan.