back to article Harry Potter Web-2.0 'Pottermore' offering unveiled

The child wizard is going online, come October, in what author JK Rowling promises will be a collaborative creation experience, not just an online game with social media attached. At first glance Pottermore looks like an online game: players (sorry, readers) will be able enrol at Hogwarts, then mix potions and cast spells to …

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  1. Ally J
    Facepalm

    As the guy behind 'PotterWar', all those years ago

    Maybe I should claim that she's ripped off my name and is confusing people.

  2. TeeCee Gold badge
    Alert

    "..from Sony"

    What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

  3. Adrian Challinor
    FAIL

    And presumably...

    Sony will make all the user login details publicly available for any Harry, Ron or Hermoine to download in clear text. Because thats what Sony are good at.

    Sorry, I will not be joining if Sony are involved.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      forget Sony

      I won't be joining because Harry Potter is involved and I'm not a child.

    2. frank ly
      Meh

      Use your head ...

      ... and a disposable e-mail address and a pre-paid credit card with £50 max on it.

  4. Marky W
    Trollface

    Dante's Inferno 2.0

    Facebook: 1st Circuit of Hell

    Myspace: 2rd Circuit of Hell

    Pottermore: 3rd Circuit of Hell

    .

    .

    .

    Any Twilight fansite: 7th Circuit of Hell

    Fill in the blanks yourself. I've things to do, you know.

  5. Graham Bartlett

    Share stories?

    How long before "Naked Quidditch" shows up in its wonderful newsgroupy entirety? And how do they think they're doing to stop it happening?

  6. sisk

    Looked good....

    right up until 'Sony'.

    Even so, why do I get the feeling my wife is going to be vanishing into Pottermore, rarely to be heard from again?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Pint

      Because...

      Not sure ... did you marry a 12 year old girl?

      1. sisk

        Don't kid yourself

        No 12 year old could match my wife's enthusiasm for Harry Potter. She has all seven books basically memorized. Trying to watch one of the movies with her is an exercise in frustration. She either rants about what they left out of the movie or says the lines right along with the characters.

        The silver lining is that her enthusiasm for all thing Harry Potter has kept her from getting too deep into the world of sparkling vampires.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    Vague bell ringing in my head ...

    didn't El Reg run a story a few years ago, about companies being warned off ventures like this, as it would make allegations of plagarism much easier to substansiate.

    Suppose a fan writes a short story, and a book/movie is later released which bears a passing similarity to that story ... it would be hard for the publishers to convince a court they had never seen the work in question, when it was posted on t'web for all to see for years ....

    1. peyton?
      Devil

      They'll have learned from Facebook

      In the T&Cs, there will be a clause (in magical invisible pixels no doubt) letting you know you wave all rights to anything you post, profits rising therefrom, your immortal soul will be used to feed the dementors, etc., etc.

      ^ A happy, well-fed soul gobbler

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Boffin

        Life ain't that simple

        And what if your FB "friend" decides to post something *you* wrote (but haven't put on facebook) on *their* FB page. And it gets hoovered up and used to make a bestselling film ?

        Currently, as far as I know, in *any* jurisdiction, you can't sell what you don't own.

        There's a precedent for this in the US - the Pythons (Monty) took ABC? NBC? to court, because their contract with the BBC did NOT pass over their rights to the material, and allowed them totally control over it's formatting.

        When the US got the shows they bastardised them by cutting for adverts, and bleeping words. The Pythons took them to court (and won) in a case which was a bit of a landmark.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    'readers are expected to share their stories with friends'

    Odds on a 'Pottermore Porn' scandal regarding stories about Hermione within a week of it going online?

    1. frank ly

      It depends how you do it...

      Hermione was in such a hurry to tell Harry the news that she didn't pause to knock as she opened the door to his room. She staggered to a halt at the sight of Harry kneeling on the floor and polishing his wand with furious vigour.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      You do have to wonder

      If JK Rowling has heard of slash-fiction.

      As for your prediction of 'within a week' - five minutes tops.

      1. Angus 2
        Childcatcher

        Well

        Since I bet it will be ferociously moderated I suspect it may take longer than that. But then I have been wrong before. ;)

    3. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

      Harry Potter stories have been slyly salacious ever since

      Percy Weasley was reported in the second book lurking in his bedroom at home polishing his prefect badge. Talk about a chamber of secrets...

      At the Triwizarding Yule Ball, several couples attempted to...

      Harry gets lucky in the sixth book, using Horace Slughorn's luck potion... that's LUCK with an L...

      NO indication as far as this reader is concerned that Dumbledore was gay, as apparently he was, but I thought he liked flirting with Madam Pomfrey, Professor McGonagall fancies Dumbledore - maybe the Pomfrey thing is to ward her off gently - and Hagrid's a bit keen on McGonagall. He'd crush her like dry macaroni of course.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    Now

    I can die happy.

  10. Stu Wilson
    WTF?

    dont know what the hell Sony has to do with it

    except sponsored by Sony.

    It's being completely developed in-house by the UK digital agency TH_NK, based in Newcastle and London

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Down

      Maybe Sony made it broken

      Does Sony or Th_nk's involvement have a contribution as to why the site didn't work when it went live and didn't until early this morning?

  11. Paul Durrant

    Electronic Books?

    If "Pottermore" is going to be the only source of legitimate electronic copies of the books, there's your income source. Rather than give 30% to Amazon, Apple, et. al., they'll take the lot and use that to fund the site. With, I suspect, a lot left over!

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Did Sony or Th_nk break it?

    Does Sony or Th_nk's involvement have a contribution as to why the site didn't work when it went live and didn't until early this morning? I tried for hours at lunchtime when it went live to register but the email form never became visible then the site stopped working

  13. Mark Aggleton
    FAIL

    Email addresses

    can't cope with email addresses with more that one dot after @. i.e. dsl.pipex.com. Had to crearte a gmail account for the OH

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