A pirated edition of boy wizard Harry Potter’s latest book hit the Pakistani market this week and booksellers say author J.K. Rowling’s original blockbuster stands little chance of competing against the cheaper version. “At least five different pirated editions of ‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’ are being sold in the market,” bookseller Jameel Hussain told Reuters on Thursday. He said pirated books were selling for Rs 295-495 ($5-$8.50) against $29.99 for the original. He said the flood of pirated copies had forced him to cut his orders of the original. “We planned to import around 15,000 to 16,000 copies, buthave reduced the order to just 1,000 copies.” Book piracy is rampant in Pakistan where laws for the intellectual property rights exist but are hardly ever implemented. Thirteen-year-old Masood Mehmood said he did not like the pirated edition because of its bad print and cheap paper. “But I just want to read the story,” he said at a book shop in Karachi.
