French teen posts illegal translation – Suggested answers Activity 1

X. Lachazette * Multimedia & Translation : Launching the Course with Harry Potter * p. 1 of 3
French teen posts illegal translation – Suggested answers
Adapted from an article posted by Angela Charlton, Associated Press, August 08, 2007 4:22PM
1 PARIS – A determined French 16-year-old translated all 759 pages of Harry Potter and the
Deathly Hallows within days of the book's July 21 release. The problem: He posted his English-toFrench translation online. That was illegal, and now the teen has spent a night in jail and faces charges
of intellectual property violation.
2 Author J.K. Rowling's lawyers say networks of other illegal Potter translators span the world. The
translators seek to profit from the boy wizard's global appeal, and have grown more sophisticated with
every new tome. The French teen translator, a high school student from Aix-en-Provence in southern
France, likely had less sinister intentions.
3 “He just wanted to get the book online,” and did not appear to be seeking commercial gain, Aix
Prosecutor Olivier Rothe said Wednesday. The boy apparently compiled the entire translation himself,
Rothe said.
4 The teenager, whose name was not released because he is a minor, was picked up Monday
following a complaint from police in Paris and was released Tuesday after questioning, Rothe said. He
said the boy could face charges for violating intellectual property rights.
5 The French agency for fighting counterfeiting alerted Rowling and the publishing house that is
releasing the official French translation, of the unauthorized version, Gallimard said in a statement
Wednesday. The publishing house, Gallimard Jeunesse, said it offered its support to the agency.
6 Gallimard spokeswoman Marie Leroy-Lena said official Harry Potter translator Jean-Francois
Menard is still working on Deathly Hallows, as he only received the official English version when it
was officially released. Menard refused to comment on the pirated version.
7 Readers eager for the seventh and final Potter adventure are frustrated that it is taking him so
long. “To wait three months to have a French version, that is too much!” said Ketty Do, a 17-year-old,
flipping through the English version at a bookstore on the Champs-Elysees.
8 Do called the teen translator “a courageous person,” but added, laughing: “Still, I will wait for the
official version, since this kid is only 16.” Twelve-year-old Robin Gallaud, looking at video games in
the bookstore, had no such reservations. “If I find the French version on the Net, I will read it,” he said.
9 The managers of these networks derive profit by attracting advertisers. Neil Blair, a lawyer at the
Christopher Little Literary Agency, said French police told him one young woman had been questioned
about these networks, but was released. “The real Harry Potter fans are not supporting this,” Blair said.
Activity 1: Reading Comprehension
1) Summarize the article in a maximum of 3 sentences:
Summary: A French 16-year-old spent one night in prison for illegally posting his translation of the
seventh and last volume of the Harry Potter series online. Apparently his motivation was not
financial, unlike other translators around the world who do post illegal translations online for
money purposes. The author’s and the publishing house’s fears are that sales could plummet with
teenagers reading the book on the Internet instead, but no such thing seems to be happening for
“real fans” are said not to care for this pirated version and prefer waiting for the official translation
into French to be released.
2) Does the reader have the impression that this illegal translation of the book will impair sales?
Why or why not?
Impression & why (not)?: No, the reader has no such impression. Two teenagers are interviewed in
this article: a girl who says she’ll wait for the official translation since she doesn’t expect the
pirated version to be good enough; and a boy who does say he will read it on the net if he lays
hands on it. The article also ends with a lawyer’s assertion that “real fans” will remain faithful to
the official translator and do not “support” such illegal practices. Obviously this man’s opinion
could be biased, but as far as an overall impression is concerned, the reader is left thinking that
sales might be slightly affected, but not that much.
X. Lachazette * Multimedia & Translation : Launching the Course with Harry Potter * p. 2 of 3
3) Is this whole story a matter of money? Why or why not?
Money only? & why (not)?: Concerning the young French translator, money does not seem to have
been involved: he seems to have wanted to share his translation with others, not to have tried to
make a profit out of it.
The article mentions other people, though. For instance, we are told that an army of translators
around the world profitably translates books illegally—so much so that lawyers and an agency are
on the look-out for pirated versions of this kind.
The last paragraph also mentions that a few networks derive money from the commercial ads
that are featured on the sites they manage. In other words, even if illegal translations are not sold on
these networks, network owners sell ad spaces on their sites and benefit from intellectual property
rights violations.
4) Why does it take the French translator so long to publish his translation?
Why?: The article mentions that Jean-François Ménard only got the book when it was officially
released, on July 21 (to avoid leaks, we can imagine). Since he is providing the official translation,
we can imagine that it will take him some time to translate all 759 pages! He will not hurry through
it, unlike the French teenager. We can also suppose that it is a commercial strategy to only publish
the book in late October: school kids will be on vacation.
Activity 2: Translation
5) Translate the sentences in red in paragraphs 1, 2, and 5:
§1: PARIS – Motivé, un jeune Français de 16 ans a traduit l’intégralité des 759 pages de Harry
Potter et les reliques de la mort quelques jours à peine après la sortie du livre, le 21 juin dernier. Le
problème est qu’il a mis en ligne sa traduction de l’anglais vers le français. Comme ceci est illégal,
cet adolescent a passé une nuit en prison et est poursuivi pour violation des droits de propriété
intellectuelle.
§2: Ces traducteurs cherchent à profiter de l’engouement mondial pour le célèbre apprenti sorcier et
deviennent de plus en plus professionnels à chaque nouveau volume.
§5: Dans un communiqué, Gallimard a déclaré mercredi dernier que l’agence française de lutte
contre la contrefaçon a alerté J. K. Rowling et la maison d’édition chargée de publier la traduction
officielle en français de l’existence d’une version non autorisée.
Activity 3: Searching the Internet
6) Give the Internet address of the page this article is taken from.
Internet address?: http://blog.nj.com/harrypotter/2007/08/french_teen_posts_illegal_tran.html
N.B. : il vous suffit de copier-coller une phrase entière du texte dans Google – en la mettant de
préférence entre guillemets pour indiquer que vous voulez trouver cette suite de mots telle quelle
sur une seule page Web. En règle générale, le moteur de recherches Google ne vous donne alors …
qu’une seule possibilité (si vous choisissez une bonne phrase – avec des mots inhabituels, par
exemple).
7) What is the whole Website about? What does its name mean?
Website & meaning?: The whole site is about New Jersey – hence, “nj” in the Web address.
Internet users visiting this page can read articles on general news, sports, entertainment,
multimedia, etc. – some of them with a New Jersey focus. The article is taken from a blog (hence
“blog” in the Web address also), entitled “The Harry Potter Blog,” managed by a “Madame Coco
Foxglove.” The article itself was not written by the blog owner, but by a journalist working for the
Associated Press. To finish, we also notice the .com extension in the name: we thus understand that
this site has a commercial side to it. Indeed, we also find “real estate” (“immobilier”), classifieds
(“petites annonces”) and “shopping” sections.
N.B. : intérêt de bien lire et comprendre l’URL (l’adresse Web) de ce site pour en comprendre la
nature et la finalité.
X. Lachazette * Multimedia & Translation : Launching the Course with Harry Potter * p. 3 of 3
8) When will the official French translation of the 7th volume in the Potter series come out? (Give
the URL of the page on which you find this information.)
Date and URL?: October 26th, 2007-09-25. Voir www.evene.fr/livres/livre/j-k-rowling-harry-potter-et-lesreliques-de-la-mort-27870.php
N.B. : mots clés utilisés pour cette recherche : "reliques de la mort" publication. Remarquer les
guillemets : je demande au moteur de recherches de chercher une page unique sur laquelle figurent
les mots « reliques de la mort » les uns après les autres et sans rien entre eux à part les espaces +
le mot « publication ». Cette recherche porte ses fruits : le 2ème site mentionné par Google
comporte directement l’information recherchée (sans aller sur le site). Cliquer tout de même sur le
lien pour aller sur le site en question et vérifier l’information. On ne sait jamais…
9) What will the French title of the 7th volume in the Potter series be? (Give the URL of the page
on which you find this information.)
Title and URL?: Harry Potter et les reliques de la mort. Voir http://www.poudlard.org/HarryPotter-and-the-Deathly
N.B. : mots clés utilisés sur Google : "deathly hallows" "titre français". Noter que je demande à
Google de me trouver 2 expressions sur la même page Web : d’une part « deathly hallows », de
l’autre « titre français ». Bingo du premier coup : le 1er site listé par Google me donne la solution.
10) Insert two pictures below: the cover of the 7th volume, and the author of the series. Each picture
must be UNDER 40 kb. (Indicate the “weight” of each of those two pictures in parenthesis.)
2 pictures (& their weight):
19 kb (kilobytes)
45 kb (kilobytes)
N.B. : sur Google, bien cliquer sur « Images » avant de taper vos mots clés (« deathly hallows » ou
« j k rowling », par exemple). Ensuite, choisissez l’image que vous préférez – esthétiquement
parlant -, tout en faisant bien attention à la contrainte fixée ici : image de moins de 50 kilooctets (=
« kilobytes » en anglais). La précision du « poids » de chaque photo est donnée sur Google après
les dimensions de l’image, exprimée en pixels. Autre information donnée par Google : le format des
images : jpg, gif, png, etc.
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