Everybody knows how much excitement the release of the latest Harry Potter volume brought on in the USA. Now imagine you were a huge Harry Potter fan, but couldn’t read the book yet in your native language. Would you hold out for the official translation? Or could you be tempted by reading an illicit online version? Some Chinese fans just couldn’t wait, going so far as to actually post a translated version of parts of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows” on the Internet. “China's authorized publisher of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has denounced the freelance translators and urged them to delete the translations,” reported The West Australian on August 2nd, 2007. After the illegal publication of the first few chapters, the translation piracy has stopped – at least for the moment. Chinese readers will have to wait until October 28th to read the official translation, which will be published by The People's Literature Publishing House. Whether in literature or in business, quality translations lead to broader cross-cultural understanding. At Language Translation Inc. in San Diego, we have been providing companies with high-quality language services for over 17 years. “We speak your language – and theirs.” Betty Carlson Subscribe to Language Lines, our monthly newsletter, for current information on translation and language interpretation. | 
