Harry Potter 7: The End of an Era

In case you hadn't noticed, the last Harry Potter novel is coming out on Saturday. It's the end of an era - not just because it's the last, but also because, apparently:

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows ... has hit BitTorrent.

Assuming this is actually Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and if the most closely-guarded text in the world of intellectual monopolies really is out, maybe it's time for the guardians of those monopolies to forget about them.

(Hint: the latest Harry Potter book does not consist purely of text, and the essence of reading it is not something you can download from BitTorrent.)