Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Leaked at BitTorrent

Leaked copies of what users are claiming to be the yet-to-be-released final book in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, are now available at BitTorrent and are quickly making their way over to other torrent sites. According to Torrentfreak, while there have been other fake copies "leaked" on the torrent sites in recent weeks, this one is the real deal. What is now available online is claimed to be copies of the American version of the book.

But while Torrentfreak is confirming it as the real thing, MTV isn't quite so sure, writing it off as a likely fake.

All of the pages have been scanned, but many are complaining that the scans are of low quality, and that you can just barely read the text on the pages.

Will all of the secrecy and security surrounding this book, you'd think the publishers would have prevented something like this from happening. Especially with it being the last Harry Potter book ever.

If this is indeed the real thing, expect the spoilers to soon be running rampant. If you're holding out for the book's official release next week, you might want to stay away from reading any Harry Potter news... you're bound to come across a spoiler.

Editor Arthur A. Levine, who edits the Harry Potter books, talked about the security measures taken with this book's release (prior to the "leak"):

"Usually, we give advance material to the buyers at bookstores, to help them determine how many copies they want. We don't do that here, and they already have a pretty firm idea of what their audience is. And no copies to press reviewers until the day of release."

Yes, but I know someone else who gets the books prior to release.... libraries! I've seen it firsthand in past Harry Potter releases. How do you think libraries have the books ready and on the shelves on the same day they go on sales in the stores? They get them early so they can be stamped, processed, and ready to go when fans come trampling through the library. So if libraries get them early, surely someone else is too, and there lies the possibility for a breach in their carefully planned security...