Harry Potter’s publishing wand can tame Amazon, pirates

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The books and movies have come to an end but Harry Potter is living on in Pottermore, a digital land and e-book store that is set to leave yet another giant business footprint.

The latest JK Rowling franchise has also raised eyebrows in the publishing world by selling e-books without digital rights protection.

“If you buy a digital book you should be able to read it on anything you want to read it on”, said Pottermore CEO Charlie Redmayne who was at paidContent 2012 in New York to chat about e-books with our publishing reporter, Laura Owen.

Redmayne said the decision to release the long awaited e-books without rights protection produced an initial spike in piracy as readers uploaded them to file-sharing sites. But the piracy soon abated as other readers pressed the moral case to take down the files (they also pointed out to the file-sharers that watermarks made them easily identifiable).

Redmayne also stated that Pottermore, which has been live for two months, has already received more than a billion pageviews. The website, which offers users a chance to participate in things like sorting hats and broomstick duels, is intended to supply the rest of the Harry Potter world in which the books are just a “narrow corridor.”

Pottermore has also pulled off another seemingly magical feat by persuading Amazon to redirect all sales to its site. Redmayne said this is in part a reflection of publishers’ desire to associate themselves with strong brands.

Check out the rest of our coverage of paidContent 2012. Full archived video on livestream (registration required).

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