Обновление на сайте JKR

[jenni]

На официальном сайте JKR появился рассказ об опасностях, подстерегающих всякого, кто поведется на объявления о продаже электронных версий ГПиПП, размещенные на всяких подозрительных сайтах и в Р2Р-сетях, о том, стоит ли заводить сову в качестве домашнего животного, и о том, соответствуют ли действительности слухи о приобретении JKR в Эдинбурге 15-комнатного особняка.



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Section: News

Monday 31 January 2005



Harry Potter e-Book Scam



As many of you will know from reputable Harry Potter fan sites who reported this story, a site called www.harrybooks.info (now closed) has been offering what it alleged to be an e-book version of ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’ – my thanks go to the Leaky Cauldron, in particular, for promptly warning fans what was going on.



You should NEVER trust any Harry Potter e-books offered for download from the internet or on P2P/file-trading networks. Setting aside the fact that these books are illegal (there are no authorised HP e-books to date), they may infect your computer with viruses, leave you vulnerable to the dangers of hacking and/or credit card fraud and may also contain content that has nothing to do with Harry Potter, to say the least.



I would bet the original manuscript of HPB itself that this will not be the last attempt to con HP fans before the publication of book six on 16th July. Please, please protect yourselves, your computers and your credit cards and do not fall for these scams. The only genuine copies of Harry Potter remain the authorised traditional book or audio tapes/cassettes/CDs distributed through my publishers. Similarly, the only sources of release news you should trust are this website or official spokespeople such as representatives of my publishers or agent (details in ‘Links’ section). CONSTANT VIGILANCE!





Section: Extra Stuff

Owls



Owls feature in many superstitions across the world. To the Greeks, the owl was emblematic of Athena, goddess of wisdom and war, and if an owl was sighted flying over the Greek army prior to battle it was considered an omen of victory. To the Romans, on the other hand, the owl was an unlucky creature that predicted death and disaster. In Britain there is a superstition that it is unlucky to see an owl by daylight, a superstition I had fun with in the first chapter of ‘Philosopher’s Stone’ where, of course, the sudden explosion of owls flying by daylight represented something very lucky indeed, though the Muggles did not know it.



My wizards' owls reflect their personality to a certain extent. Poor Ron gets Pigwidgeon, who is a Scops (these are very small owls with ears – cute, but distinctly unshowy). Poor exhausted Errol is a Great Gray, which in my opinion is the most comical-looking owl in the world – just Google the Great Gray to see what I mean. Naturally I gave my hero what I consider to be the most beautiful owl of the lot: the Snowy Owl, which also goes by the name of Ghost Owl. These are not native to Britain, so I felt that she would give Harry kudos at Hogwarts (there is no other snowy owl there, as I trust you have noticed). However, any owl expert would tell you that Hedwig is strangely atypical of her breed. Only after Philosopher’s Stone had been accepted for publication did I realise that Snowy Owls are diurnal. I think it was during the writing of ‘Chamber of Secrets’ that I discovered that Snowy Owls are also virtually silent, the females being even quieter than the males. So all of Hedwig's night-time jaunts and her many reproving hoots may be taken as signs of her great magical ability or my pitiful lack of research, whichever you prefer.



(Incidentally: there has been a spate of stories in the press recently concerning the upswing in popularity of keeping owls as pets, allegedly as a result of the Harry Potter books. If it is true that anybody has been influenced by my books to think that an owl would be happiest shut in a small cage and kept in a house, I would to take this opportunity to say as forcefully as I can: please don’t.)





Section: Rubbish Bin

Symbol(s): Starting to Smell



JKR creates ‘fifteen bedroom mansion’



I was deeply amused to read recent reports in UK newspapers that we have just applied for planning permission to create a fifteen-bedroom-home - after all, even Dudley only required two bedrooms. It’s quite true that we have been doing building work on our house in Edinburgh, but as we are not setting up a hotel we went for a slightly more moderate number of sleeping quarters - divide fifteen by three and you might find yourself a little closer to the truth.



Actually, it now occurs to me that ‘divide-by-three’ is a good rule to apply to a lot of ‘news’ stories.



А краткий пересказ этих новостей от Lidi с allpotter.ru читайте

тут

- Роулинг просит фанатов не покупать в сети и не скачивать себе на на комп электронные версии "Поттеров". Особенно по Р2Р-сетям (типа Kazaa, Shareaza). И особенно "Гарри Поттера и принца-полукровку". Потому что его еще нет в сети. И, как надеется Роулинг, никогда не будет. Так как это противозаконно, и официально "Поттер" может выходить только в виде книг, аудио-книг, сд-книг и, естессно, фильмов. Так что берегитесь, фанаты, предупреждает грозная тетька Роулинг!





- Еще Роулинг не забыла повозмущаться тем, как все сейчас бросились покупать себе сов, совершенно не умея за ними ухаживать. Роулинг чуть не плюется от гнева, отрицая свою причастность к возросшей популярности этих зверюшек. Писательница гордо заявляет, что в ее книгах совы существуют в огромных совятнях, что в клетках им плохо. И вообще, если фанату так хочется завести себе сову, то пусть лучше оплатит ее проживание в специальном зоопарке. Так всем будет лучше.





- Ну и еще она опровергает слухи, что, дескать, она с мужем решила отгрохать 15 спален в своем эдинбургском доме. Мол, они уже даже запрашивали для этого всякие официальные разрешения. Роулинг обижена этими слухами до глубины души. Так как строят они всего-навсего пять спален. Ну, правильно - три для детей, одну для себя и одну для гостей.





Апдейт. Очередным волшебником месяца стала Artemisia Lufkin (1754 – 1825) - первая ведьма, которая была избрана на должность министра магии.