Harry Potter leaked on the Net

NEW DELHI: As the hype and frenzy builds to the much-awaited final installment of the JK Rowling's Harry Potter, media’s abuzz with reports that all 759 pages of the book have been leaked on the Internet.

Photographs of the book's every page showed up on BitTorrent file sharing sites. Though some of the photos made the text difficult to read, but the much protected ending is reported to be easily legible. Also, one of the biggest suspense of the book, names of the two lead characters who die, are also said to be freely available on all popular blog sites.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is scheduled for release on midnight of July 21. And the book's publisher is said to have gone at great lengths to safeguard its content.

In fact, the leak has come despite one of the strictest security measures, which reportedly included secret warehouses, round-the-clock security and, according to UK's The Sunday Telegraph, satellite tracking systems attached to trucks transporting the books to ensure they did not stray from assigned routes.

The book's US publisher appears to be furiously trying to suppress the leak. The company's lawyers are said to be pursuing the identity of the person who posted the pictures.

Various sites have since removed the download and are preventing users from re-adding them.

However, the book can still be freely obtained from file sharing sites that are outside the US and therefore outside the reach of the US copyright laws.

There were also several photos posted on the picture-sharing site, Flickr, by a user named hermionepotter77, a reference to one of Harry's best friends.