# Hacker claims to have stolen Harry Potter manuscript, posts "spoilers." **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 21, 2007, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hacker-claims-to-have-stolen-harry-potter-manuscript-posts-spoilers/408876 "2007-06-21T17:23:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2007, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hacker-claims-to-have-stolen-harry-potter-manuscript-posts-spoilers/408876/1 "2007-06-21T17:23:06Z")
Interesting story here. Some hacker says he got into the computers at Bloomsbury using something called a “milw0rm” (whatever that is. I know nothing about computers) and found the manuscript for [_Deathly Hallows_](http://www.eitb24.com/new/en/B24_54327/entertainment/HARRY-POTTERS-SAGA-Hacker-says-knows-Harry-Potters-ending). > [@](#): > > The mystery surrounding the end to fictional British boy wizard Harry Potter’s saga deepened on Wednesday with a computer hacker posting what he said were key plot details and a publisher warned the details could be fake. > > The hacker, who goes by the name “Gabriel,” claims to have taken a digital copy of author J.K. Rowling’s seventh and final book, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” by breaking into a computer at London-based Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. > > \ > > Kyle Good, a spokesman for U.S. distributor Scholastic Corp., would not say whether the posting was accurate, but did warn readers to be skeptical about anything on the Web that claims to have inside information on the book’s plot. “There is a whole lot of junk flying around,” she said. “Consider this one more theory.” “Gabriel” appears to be – or at least is pretending to be – some kind of religious nutbag who thinks Harry Potter is evil. Here is what he gives as his motive: > [@](#): > > “We did it by following the precious words of the great Pope Benedict XVI when he still was Cardinal Josepth [sic] Ratzinger. He explained why Harry Potter bring the youngs [sic] of our earth to Neo Paganism faith. So we make this spoiler to make reading of the upcoming book useless and boring.” So yeah, nutcase, but I think it’s strange that Scholastic won’t comment on whether the spoilers are true. I think refusing to deny them gives me more pause than I would normally have about dismissing some blowhard hacker’s claim on the internet. After reading the spoilers, though (and after reading Gabriel’s stated motives), I think the spoilers are probably bullshit. For anyone who is interested, [this](http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2007/Jun/0380.html) is the link to Gabriel’s post at [Insecure.org](http://Insecure.org). And these are the alleged spoilers: > [@](#): > > [spoiler]Dear my brothers, > > Voldemort killed Hermione. Yes, that’s true. And we knew that 2 days ago. > > This is the end of the not yet published (someone could call that 0day) book > > ``` > Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows . > > ``` > > At the end of the story Hagrid was killed by Snape in the attempt of ambush Hermione and Ron. > Ron and Hermione flees in privet drive but Voldermort, surprising them, engaged a magical duel with Ron and Hermione. > > Voldemort attacked trough the imperius curse and Hermione, to protect the life of Ron fight hardly for more than 6 pages and then finally die. > (boring, very boring… it’s always the same story!) > > Then, to make a long story short, Harry came up, killed all the bad guys and Hogwarts against became a good place to stay and have fun. > > Ah, i missed one important information about Draco Malfoy, he started to create Horcrux (for fun and profit!). > The end.[/spoiler] Looking over the spoilers again, I’m even more convinced they’re bullshit. They just don’t sound anything like what Rowling would do with these characters and the denouement contains no real information. I kind of wish Scholastic would just SAY the spoilers are bullshit but maybe they think the publicity is good. I don’t know. Anyway, do these spoilers look plausible to anyway else? Can anyone with computer knowledge comment on whether his alleged technique for getting into the Bloomsbury computers sound believable? This is just another full-of-crap internet bullshit artist, right? ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2007, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hacker-claims-to-have-stolen-harry-potter-manuscript-posts-spoilers/408876/2 "2007-06-21T17:24:04Z")
Thread already going over [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=425719). I’ll notify the mods. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![SkipMagic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skipmagic/32/20706_2.png) [@SkipMagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkipMagic)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2007, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hacker-claims-to-have-stolen-harry-potter-manuscript-posts-spoilers/408876/3 "2007-06-21T17:35:32Z")
Closing duplicate thread. Y’all go play around in the other one, y’hear?