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| Harry Potter author, J.K. Rowling,
has made all six novels available for audio
downloads. | |
J.K. Rowling, once publishing's greatest holdout against the computer age, has made
all six Potter novels available for audio downloads. In a message posted
Wednesday on her Web site, Rowling said she was concerned about online
piracy, included bootleg
editions for which the original text was altered.
"Many Harry Potter fans have been keen for digital access for a while,
but the deciding factor for me in authorizing this new version is that it
will help combat the growing incidents of piracy in this area," Rowling
wrote.
"There have been a number of incidents where fans have stumbled upon unauthorized files
believing them to be genuine and, quite apart from the fact that they are
illegal, the Harry Potter content of these can bear very little
resemblance to anything I've ever written!"
The digital audiobooks are being released by the Random House Audio
Trade Group, her current audio publisher. They can be purchased through
Apple's iTunes store, for prices ranging from $32.95 for a single book to
$249 for the whole series, which, according to Random House, includes a
"full color digital booklet" and "previously unreleased readings" by
Rowling.
Neil Blair, a lawyer with Rowling's literary agency, said Wednesday
that there are no current plans for Potter e-books.
Rowling's fantasy series, most recently "Harry Potter and Half-Blood
Prince," has sold more than 200 million copies worldwide in print editions
and more than 5 million as audiobooks, narrated by Grammy winner Jim Dale.
But up to now the author had only permitted paper and traditional audio
releases, making her work a favorite for online pirates, although illegal
sales are believed to be relatively tiny.
Helped by the iPod boom, digital audiobooks are already one of
publishing's hottest sectors, with sales nearly quadrupling between 2001
and 2003, to more than $18 million, according to the Audio Publishers
Association.
(Agencies) |
J·K·羅琳曾經是出版界最著名的堅決抵制電腦時代的人，然而最近她卻授權在網絡上提供6本哈利波特系列小說的語音下載。周三，羅琳在她的個人網站上留言說，她非常擔心網上的盜版行為，其中包括那些竄改原文的盜版版本。
“許多哈利波特迷們迫切希望哈利波特的電子版本能夠盡快問世，但我最終決定授權發行電子版主要是因為這樣有利于打擊越來越多的網絡盜版事件，”羅琳這樣寫到。
“哈利波特迷們把偶然看到的一些未經授權的出版物誤認為是正版的，這樣的情況經常發生。不要說這些東西壓根就是不合法的，它里面有關哈利波特的內容和我寫的故事千差萬別！”
這套數字有聲讀物由羅琳現在的音像出版商蘭登書屋音像出版集團公司出版發行，可以在Apple's
iTunes商店購買，單本書售價32.95美元，整套書的價格為249美元。據蘭登書屋透露，其中包括“一本全彩印刷的電子目錄”和羅琳“以前沒有公開發表的一些故事”。
羅琳文稿代理公司的律師尼爾·布萊爾周三表示目前還沒有出版哈利波特電子書的打算。
羅琳的魔法系列叢書，其中最近出版的一本《哈利·波特與混血王子》在全球的銷售量已經超過2億冊，由格萊美獎得主吉姆·戴爾錄制的有聲讀物的銷售量也已經超過5百萬套。但是，到目前為止，作者羅琳只授權出版了紙介和傳統的有聲出版物，因此，她的作品受到網絡盜版者的“青睞”，盡管非法銷售相對來說很少。
iPod播放器的流行促使數字有聲讀物成為出版物中最熱銷的一類。據有聲讀物出版協會統計，從2001年到2003年，有聲讀物的銷售量將近翻了兩番，超過1800萬美元。
（中國日報網站 薛曉文譯） |
Updated: 2005-09-12 09:17
