London, July 26: An hoax e-mail was circulating around the Internet on Friday purporting to be a new cookery book from British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver dishing up recipes from sushi rolls to fish and chips. Penguin Books, the UK publisher for Oliver's books, said it was trying to track down the e-mail's author. It contained a 121-page Microsoft Word document attachment replete with color photos, scores of recipes and a fictitious title, "The Naked Chef 2."

"It appears to be a type of pirated version of his many cook books," said Jess Ward, publicity director for Penguin Books in London. "Obviously, this is an infringement of Jamie's copyright so Penguin is pursuing it with authorities."

The publishing house was first alerted to the e-mail on Thursday and the document appeared to be winging its way to more and more in-boxes as Friday wore on.

Media companies have become regular victims of online piracy. The culprits typically distribute bootleg copies of films and music.
Earlier this month, music industry lobbying group the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), said the sale of pirated compact discs reaped $4.6 billion worldwide in 2002.

Last year, illegally obtained copies of fifty top-10 albums made it onto the streets before the official release date, the IFPI said. But pirated books are a rarer phenomenon.

"There's nothing original in the e-mail. It appears to come from a collection of his previous books," said Ward. "We're not concerned about the commercial impact." Bureau Report