I just read the anonymous letter with the subject chilllll. That writer makes a good point. Knowing that the book is out there is a warning. Now we know that if we hear someone claiming to know what happens in the book they may be telling the truth, whereas before we found out about this leak it was almost certainly just idle speculation.

I don't care-- like I personally am not angry about you posting this, or talking about downloading illegally-- but I am surprised you would admit to illegal file sharing on a public website. Aren't you a little scared of getting in trouble?

Yes, readers can stay away.

This is about authors and publishers whose rights get violated. Doesn't matter if the author is someone as wildly successful as Rowling. Wrong is wrong.

Is this newsworthy? Even if it is, a story on illegal filesharing did not need to actually mention the name of the site - that makes me suspicious of Manjoo's intentions. Oh yes, of course, he didn't do anything illegal - he didn't link, after all.

How to you justify downloading the leak? Is it because you're a journalist so it's OK? I'm pretty sure that if you were to post a direct link to the leak on Salon there would be legal ramifications, right? While you were downloading through Bittorrent others were downloading the file from you (that is the nature of Bittorrent). Probably something that you should have warned your readers of (so they are aware they could be sued).

Let's calm the hysteria a little bit people. That the book was leaked is news. Almost anything that happens with the book is news. That the book was leaked and turned into .pdfs and put on bittorrent where it can't be removed is technology news.

I am one of the people trying to make sure that not to read any spoilers before friday midnight, but this article in no way made that more difficult for me. I'd still have to go search for, download and then read the book for anything to be ruined! There is no threat here.

You have provided a circumvention of copyright protection, and therefore have exposed salon.com to legal liability by providing this information....

OUCH!

chill out! he didnt link to it, he didnt spoil it. he even tactfully chose to use the picture of the first page only in the article- this giving away NOTHING!

At the very least he WARNED you that someone ELSE out there may indeed spoil it for you by broadcasting the ending they learned from the leaked version.

if you search out the site on google and download it and ruin it for yourself then shame on you. i assume that we are adults capable of exercising a little will power.

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.

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.

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.

something 'a href' etc. etc.

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 "

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"!