JK Rowling Fights Piracy With Harry Potter Downloads  9/8/05

Author JK Rowling is selling her famous Harry Potter books as audio downloads in a desperate attempt to stamp out piracy.

The British writer decided to allow her work to be made officially available for purchase on Apple's iTunes website, after Potter fans spotted bootleg versions on the internet.

She says, "Apart from the fact that they are illegal, the Potter content of these can bear very little resemblance to anything I've ever written.

"Many Harry Potter fans have been keen for digital access for a while, but the deciding factor for me in authorising this new version is that it will help combat the growing incidents of piracy in this area."

Rowling has also attacked online auction giant eBay for failing to take responsibility for fake autographs purporting to be signed by her which were on the site.

She says, "As far as I could tell on the day I dropped in, only one of the signatures on offer appeared genuine.

"There seem to be a lot of people out there trying to con Harry Potter fans."

eBay spokesman Hani Durzi says, "It's the responsibility of the copyright owner to report any listings that violate their rights.

"When they do, we take those listings down immediately."