Letters to the Editor
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Not Salon!!!
Oh please please PLEASE don't contribute to this. I'm dying for Friday to arrive, but that's part of the fun. And we don't need more people out there with spoilers. Who knows what damage you've already done, but PLEASE take this down. You're not cool for posting it--Salon is usually cool for playing the game *better* than others.
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TAKE IT DOWN!!!!!!!!!!
Some of us(weirdos) want to read the book with chocolate in peace.
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Can't wait to download Farhad's new book
And hopefully, when Farhad Manjoo's new book comes out in 2008, someone will post it and we can download that too! I mean, he obviously doesn't mind!
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Bring it on.
I've already read the epilogue because I think déjà vu is, like, the best sensation ever!
Let me be the first to confirm that THAT THING THAT YOU, PERSONALLY, WERE WONDERING ABOUT TOTALLY PROBABLY HAPPENED.
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My God, What a Dumbass!
Do you have any idea what kind of legal trouble to which you've exposed Salon, Manjoo? Do you?? Yeah, didn't think so. I can't believe that this is what passes for journalism here. And tell me, what exactly does this have to do with technology? Please don't tell me it was the book scan. That shit is so 1997.
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File Sharers Deserve to Have it Spoiled
Seriously, who's going to download the thing? A few adolescent nerds looking for bragging rights on Digg? How much of a loser would someone have to be to spoil it for themselves?
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Shame on Salon!
I really expected better from Salon. Please take it down and stop spoiling it for those of us that still appreciate books
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guess what?
Hermione dies.
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Why is everyone freaking out?
I've managed to remain completely oblivious to what occurs in the first book of the series, and it has been readily available for ten years now. But please don't tell me what happens in any of the books! My plan is to wait for all seven movies to come out, and then to watch them back to back to back for the first time on DVD. I will experience seven times the surprise and discovery that the rest of you will!
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Wow...
The author has exposed Salon to zero liability and revealed no spoilers. He simply said where one could get it if one wanted to. Don't look, don't download it. It will be fine. Nothing will be ruined for you if you stop clicking on links regarding the Potter books, 'kay?
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To folks calling on me to "take it down"
Hey, I appreciate you guys not wanting to read any of it. But as you'll notice, I didn't post any of it, nor did I give away anything that happens. I didn't even link to the site where you can get it. So there is nothing to take down -- and if you don't want the book spoiled, you're in luck, because all you have to do is nothing.
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wow...
This is........depressing.
The idea of it.
The book comes out in a few DAYS, you great git.
What kind of spaz, to use a childhood insult, does this?
Takes all kinds to make a world, I guess, but I don't understand the spoiler type.
For some reason, the whole thing actually makes me feel sort of sad.
Strange, that.
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How is this a tech story?
It's not. So what is it doing here?
VERY lame.
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Re: To folks calling on me to "take it down"
- "I didn't even link to the site where you can get it."
You named the site, which in the Google age is practically the same thing as linking to it. If I told you that I saw an article on 'Salon', how long would it take you to find the site?
The point is that you're an author, with a book coming out next year, who downloaded another author's book, then posted about it on a popular site and told everyone where to find it. So how could you possibly complain next year if someone buys one copy of your book, posts it online, and then everyone else in the world downloads it for free? How would your publisher feel, for that matter?
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I don't believe this!
Instead of admitting that what you did was wrong and taking the article out, you are actually lecturing your readers on why you are right because you didn't link? And you claim to be a technology writer?
Sheeeshh! I cannot even begin to explain how outraged I feel that this appened on Salon.... and I am not even a "fan"!
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Its technology issue because...
it is available online.
That is to say someone took digital photos, made a pdf, and made it available via bit torrent.
Those are all technologies, or if you prefer: a manner of accomplishing a task using technical processes.
And he didn't link it. I'm pretty sure that requires something like "
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Ooops
something 'a href' etc. etc.
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It feels like a threat
I went into this article thinking it was just about the book being available online (something I’ve known about since early this morning when every nerdy technology person I know sent out a frantic email). Then I came across this:
“But the copy I have includes all the pages; I could, if I wanted to, tell you the very last line of the very last Harry Potter book right now.”
You know what? That’s a shitty thing to say. It makes me not like Manjoo at all. It strikes me as crazy that this guy didn’t realize that downloading the most anticipated book in recent memory and then threatening to tell us would make him the least popular guy on Salon.
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A bit more tech, a bit less spaz
As the wife of a Mac consultant (and the, uh, "mom" of a brand new iPhone) I'm a regular Machinist reader. I think Farhad has a right to post information if he wants to do so—and no, no legal implication exists. We're all adults here and can either go check it out or not. It's called "free will".
However, as far as the content of Manjoo's blog, I'd have preferred to hear more Machinist-y kind of stuff, such as Manjoo's take on the nuts and bolts of the Mystery Poster's tech choices—his/her camera, Bitorrent's evolution, and so forth.
And yes, I downloaded the second half. I read only the epilogue. Why? I love storytelling, but I hate mystery.
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It's certainly newsworthy
Good heavens! That filesharing has spread in popularity and variety as rapidly as it has, such that days before the last Harry Potter book is available in stores it's already to be found on torrent sites: this is, in fact, newsworthy. Maybe not front-page news, but as part of tech blog? Certainly.
Filesharing isn't going to go away if people shut their ears and stop talking about it. Reporting the existence of a "Deathly Hallows" torrent isn't spoiling or ruining anything, unless you imagine that Rowling or Scholastic are going to cancel all orders and burn every copy of the book in a fit of pique. It'll still be for sale in stores in a few days.
The report does have an irreverent, possibly even pro-filesharing slant to it, but that's no cause for a blanket condemnation or speculation of criminal liability. Drawing moral equivalence between discussing the existence of filesharing and filesharing itself is absurd. If I write a report about a murder, am I giving up my right to be murdered? That seems to be the tenor of some arguments.