Bertie’s book falls victim to internet pirates

THE autobiography of former taoiseach Bertie Ahern has fallen victim of internet pirates who are offering free copies of the book for download.

Mr Ahern’s life story has fallen foul of internet scammers in one of the fastest cases of a book being made available for download for free. Mr Ahern’s British-based publishers Random House were unavailable for comment yesterday.

Mr Ahern’s autobiography, written in conjunction with the former head of the history department in UCD, Professor Richard Aldous, has been a fixture on the Irish bestsellers list since its release last month.

However reviews of the book have been mixed with some ridiculing the accuracy of Mr Ahern’s accounts of some events throughout his career.

Some other prominent victims of book piracy include Jamie Oliver and JK Rowling but the most vulnerable writers are less well-known poets, authors of short stories and writers of cookery books.

In July 2007 pages from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows appeared on the internet four days before the book went on sale.

A Chinese translation appeared online weeks before the official Chinese-language version reached bookshops.