Harry Potter author fights e-book fraud on eBay

A court has ruled in favor of children's author J.K. Rowling over fraudulent copies of Harry Potter e-books, according to reports out of the U.K.

Warner Brothers, who produces the Harry Potter films, and Rowling filed a lawsuit against eBay in 2004 over illegal copies of Harry Potter e-books that have been sold from the Indian version of the Web site.

According to the Times Online, an Indian court has ordered that eBay remove the entries for unauthorized copies of Harry Potter e-books from its site until a hearing scheduled for May 23.

But an eBay spokeswoman said in an e-mail that those reports were inaccurate.

"To clarify, an injunction has not been issued against eBay. What has happened recently is that the court issued an injunction against certain sellers on eBay who had been selling e-books. This injunction has nothing to do with eBay Inc.," Nichola Sharpe, senior public relations manager for eBay, said in an e-mail.

While eBay did confirm the ongoing lawsuit with Rowling and released a comment regarding the issue of injunction, it did not respond as to whether it has received a court order to remove those sellers from its Indian site.

CNET News.com was not able to obtain a copy of the court order at this time, but if the Times Online assertions are true the order could have larger implications. Other companies, such as Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, are suing eBay for not doing enough to stop the sale of counterfeit versions of products, such as handbags, over its site.

J.K. Rowling announced in early February that her final installment of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is scheduled to be released on July 21 in the U.K. and U.S.