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POLICE have arrested a high school student suspected of posting his own translation of the latest Harry Potter book on the internet weeks ahead of the official French release date, a newspaper reported today.

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link

It didn't occur to me that the translations would be at a later date than the English release.
 

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Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
 
Earlier HP books have had fan translations released into the wild before the official translations have been available.
 

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Posted by Mucus (Member # 9735) on :
 
Arrested? Yikes.
 

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Posted by Jon Boy (Member # 4284) on :
 
I'm surprised that foreign translations would come so soon. It's got to take a lot of time to translate an entire book.
 

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Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
 
It's become much easier now that the translators have tiny fish living in their heads.
 

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Posted by Kama (Member # 3022) on :
 
Jon Boy, if the book is as important as this, the translator will possibly have it prior to publication, and quite probably will work on it non stop
 

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Posted by Jon Boy (Member # 4284) on :
 
But it had to be finished enough for them to start translating, meaning it probably had to be close to the English publication date. I can't imagine that they're translating from J. K. Rowling's first draft or something like that. But I figured they'd probably be working round the clock to finish the translations.
 

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Posted by Kama (Member # 3022) on :
 
yeah, i suppose that's that.

The Polish translator said he needs three months for the book. And then there is editing, and printing, and stuff...
 

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Posted by Javert (Member # 3076) on :
 
I also imagine it would take a while to translate something like "Merlin's pants!"...but I could be wrong.
 

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Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
 
Nah. Just substitute a similar slightly off-color exclamation appropriate to the language...though maybe Arthurian legends are familiar in other cultures enough that this reference wouldn't be a problem?
 

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Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
 
I got the impression from the story I read that no translation commenced until the book was released on July 21.
 

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Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
 
For previous HP books, a team of pirate translators would split the book up and each would translate their section. This would allow them to release translations very fast.
 

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Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
 
les pantelons de Merlen?
 

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Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by mr_porteiro_head:
For previous HP books, a team of pirate translators would split the book up and each would translate their section. This would allow them to release translations very fast.

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I expect that the result of that would be a pretty choppy, disjointed translation.
 

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Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
 
people still watch choppy poor sound and video quality cam movies.
 

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Posted by Kama (Member # 3022) on :
 
they read it to find out what happens, not to enjoy the style it's written in.
 

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Posted by Snail (Member # 9958) on :
 
I recall reading of a case in Germany with the previous book where members of a fan group had translated the book together. Seeing as all the culprits in that case were teenagers and in a way it had been a learning example the publisher and the police agreed to let the group members share the translation with one another in e-mails and stuff as long as they didn't publish it anywhere where more people would get their hands on it.

Also, in Finland the translated version comes out around half a year after the original release and the translator does not get the book beforehand. I read an interview with her where she said she only receives a copy in the morning of the book release. But then everybody but the smallest kids read the original English version, though I have to say the translator writes much more beautiful Finnish than Rowling writes English.
 

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Posted by Lissande (Member # 350) on :
 
The Czech translation is done by one person who, I believe, does not receive the text in advance - book 7 is coming out in FEBRUARY. I think that would be enough to motivate me to learn English, if I didn't already speak it. Although there are also those lower-quality pirate translations available almost immediately - not that I've heard of anyone being arrested or punished for it.
 

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Posted by Selran (Member # 9918) on :
 
I was in Mumbai the week after book six was released. They were already selling black market copy both in Hindi and English.
 

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Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
 
The was an article in a recent paper (Globe & Mail? Don't recall) about how this one fellow was one of the first to know how the recent HP book ended. He was working on a translation pre-release.

I'll try to find it.
 

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Posted by Lissande (Member # 350) on :
 
Cool! I'd like to read that. Maybe only the special countries get advance copies for translation. Typical.
 

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Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
 
Aha -- this isn't the article I remember, but I think it's the same guy. He is an audiobook reader, not a translator.

quote:

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Broadway actor Jim Dale has gained a whole new audience by giving voice to Harry, Hermione, Severus Snape, Voldemort, and more in the audio versions of the book series. The 17-disc audio set of the final installment, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is selling almost as quickly as the book.

Not only was Dale one of the first to know the fate of Harry and his friends—he received a manuscript of the new book about two months ago—but he was also one of the first to come up with voices for J.K. Rowling’s characters.

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