BitTorrent engines such as The Pirate Bay and TorrentFreak.com offered the book in several parts, which probably originated from photographs taken of leaked copies of the novel. The versions available online are poor quality JPEG images and some of the pages are pictures (not scanned) of the book lying open on rug with a hand holding the spine of the book open.
Accordingly to Internet lawyer Mike Young, this copyright infringement is further evidence that existing copyright protections are too old and outdated to protect intellectual property rights. He said, "Look at the how ineffective Hollywood has been in cracking down on piracy despite numerous laws and lawsuits." Considering the fact that the book was leaked despite efforts of Harry Potter publishers to maintain Book 7 under tight security, retailers are now providing special training for their employees, and are even urging some to take vows of secrecy.
Despite the piracy, Young notes that the print edition of Book 7 should continue to break sales records. According to him, people most likely to read a bootleg copy are already Harry Potter fans and will definitely buy the original anyway.
TorrentFreak.com did not offer the book. They are the news site that broke the story, 
