Slashdot Mirror
Harry Potter's 'Half Blood Prince' Leaked
darkonc writes "The CBC is reporting that about 15 copies of "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" were accidently sold at a 'Great Canadien Superstore' in a suburb of Vancouver BC. The Canadian Distributor, Raincoast Books managed to get
an injunction prohibiting the people who recieved the books from talking about them and demanding that they return the books to Raincoast until Friday. To add a carrot to the stick, raincoast is offering various goodies including a signed bookplate."
Raincoast Books managed to get an injunction prohibiting the people who recieved the books from talking about them and demanding that they return the books to Raincoast until Friday. To add a carrot to the stick, raincoast is offering various goodies including a signed bookplate.
Are they actually tracking people down or is this just a protective injection? TFI says "The Court Order also requires anyone who has a copy or copies of the book to return them to Raincoast immediately." That doesn't seem very enforceable.
Of course I'd return my copy for a signed bookplate in a heartbeat. Still the paranoid part of me thinks this is yet another reason to pay for everything with cash and ditch the debit card. I wonder what the legal/financial repercussions for the store will be? TFI/TFA didn't dwell on that. Will the store be sued for breach of contract or will Raincoast consider it an honest mistake? How many poor bastards will be fired by the store in an attempt to cover managements ass?
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Scholastic won't be very happy about this...
Somewhere in Canada, someone is furiously scanning the pages of Harry Potter.
...the sky is blue. I don't really see what the problem is. The real fans will always buy the book.
Why is this even on Slashdot?
Harry Potter is just an outdated fad now. There are other books that are better worth your while.
This stuff is starting to get ridiculous. It's a book FFS, not an issue of national security!
Canadien specifically refers to French Canada, usually. This is a large nationwide chain, and I think much more prevelent in English Canada. The article even calls it the Great Canadian Superstore.
...to publish the first and last chapters.
Using ROT13 encoding.
--
Don't like it? Respond with words, not karma.
It should be on the Internet by now, jeez.
So where's the torrent?
Somebody at the GameFAQs.com forum claims to already have the book, and has supposedly posted content from it.
o ard=245&topic=22104343&page=0
http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/genmessage.php?b
This leak would lend credence to his claims that he does already have access to the book.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
So "Real Canadian Superstore" (CBC article) is the same as "Great Canadien Superstore" (/. submission)? No, really. I'm not being sarcastic. I'm curious.
Wow who would have thought it? Well, I suppose most people would have actually. Stuff like this is just to hard to keep the wraps on.
Spending all that money on keeping the launch date was a waste. How about this, set a launch date to ensure fair competition for smaller and larger stores but don't spend extra money on it, because $20 to some security guard over rides all your efforts.
What the hell is wrong with you all? Harry Potter is a fag . . . oh wait a minute - nevermind.
Raincoast Books managed to get an injunction prohibiting the people who recieved the books from talking about them
O.K., so from now on I'm no longer going to listen to any more crap from any of you Canadian Slashdotters criticizing free speech in America.
(Now watch the Kanucks and Newfies mod me into oblivion!)
World's tallest building rises in the desert
"Real Canadian Superstore"
Someone else said it .. but I'll say it again .. debit cards .. store cards .. they all sound nice and convenient.
Until the Gestapo comes for you. Since cops are under pressure to make arrests they will pull at straws and hope the jury buys it.
Only boring people don't believe in the right to privacy.
Literature for 10 year olds is "leaked"! Now the kids will have no interest in reading! When I was 10, I never read a book that was older than 3 days. Someone has to pay for this.
"If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer
Hermione grows up.
I'm sorry, but how do you prohibit the sale or providing information about a book that you PURCHASED, regardless of the date it's supposed to be released?
Am I missing something, or does that seem even more retarded than something our court systems would do?
Blake
How do you think a book store "accidentally" sold 15 copies of a book that was widely publicized to be released at a later date? And if they accidentally released it early, why did only 15 copies sell?
XaNk: now I remember why I hated the girls in high school
XaNk: because none of them would talk to me
Seriously, if I were the employee who screwed this up, I'd sleep with a pistol underneath my pillow. Everybody knows the big boss man isn't too forgiving of fuck ups like this.
Oh, wait... Harry Potter books? I thought we were talking about an international shipment of premium grade heroin.
Who the fuck cares about some Harry Potter books coming out a little early?
They should have used magic ink
This seems to be standard practice in life. How much publicity has there been over the TOP-SECRET Harry Potter. People want what they can't have, and this is a perfect example. I'm kind of tired of seeing stories about Harry Potter leaks, and all the special techniques they're using to guard the books. Wake me up when something really important happens in the world.
Canadian SWAT and amry units are mobilizing in an effort to avert catastrophe. It is reported that at this very minute someone somewhere could very well be peacefully sitting in a chair with a cup of coffee reading this book illegally. It could be a family member, your best friend, or anyone. Citizens should keep their eyes pealed for any suspicious characters with gleeful smiles on their faces -- seemingly lost in an imaginary world -- that might be concealing the illicit material beneath their clothing.
OMGWTF! 15 copies of a shitty children's novel leaked!
.
Interesting . . . .
No wait, the other thing: tedious.
It was just uploaded on http://oink.me.uk/ as a pdf... I could really care less about it though...
The article makes it sound like these people just happened to buy it. Everyone knows how tight the security is supposed to be. There are news stories about it on the evening news. And since it says that the books were purchased, not stolen, wouldn't it be easy to have something in the computer that shows a warning when the book is scanned at checkout?
That was super fast, gave it a quick look over. It could be real. (It is at the very least a good fake)
I'm sure it will be up on the the pirate bay (and everywhere else) by tomorrow afternoon.
Happy reading, you stealing bastards
Largely because there needs to be a compelling reason to restrain free speech. I guess the possibility that someone might not buy the book because Dumbldore dies in it overlooks those nasty free speech considerations.
Thalasar
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Which explains why he had only half his blood....
Yes, yes I'll be here all week...
Even though it hasn't hit yet, who wants to read a 1000+ pg. book on a computer anyway. This will have zero impact on their sales, in fact it will help them because of all the publicity this will get.
This might be a stupid question but why is this such a huge deal.
It's just a few days, what do they think will happen? Heck, most fans have preordered the book months ago. How could this effect sales?
All of the pomp and circumstance has nothing to do with control, or with a publisher's rights over the seller's rights. They're only trying to make it fair for everyone.
...let us say I (A) have an unpublished work, and someone (B) gets hold of a copy of my work, then sells it to a third party (C). While C might have acted in good faith, A can still use the courts to make sure his unpublished work isn't de facto published without consent.
Replace A with Mrs. Rowling, B with the bookstore and C with the lucky buyer. I imagine the bookstore does not have authorization to sell it until the release date, and so the book is in legal terms still considered unpublished. Unpublished works have great protection in copyright law, as they should have.
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
I gave a chick a harry potter once. Bitch couldn't walk without limping for a week and a half.
I want a new world. I think this one is broken.
Say it with me... "Ca-na-di-an". The other spelling is FRENCH.
Indeed.
I like Canada for the most part but one of the chilling things about Canada's laws is that you can be jailed or fined for merely expressing unpopular opinions and it has happened in many cases.
Freedom includes the freedom to offend or the freedom to talk about books that were not supposed to be released.
They're treating this like it's the second coming of {$DEITY}, but it's just a book. Got that? A BOOK. a fictional story. I can see people wanting to get a copy early, but court injunctions to stop them from reading them sound a little excessive. Consumer rights don't go out the window just because the book they accidentally bought is popular. What's next, shrinkwrap EULA's in every copy?
Will wank off Linus Torvalds for fame.
Of course, this happened in Canada, I don't know what the rules are there. But in the US, it is extremely difficult to "gag" someone before they print/say something. The classic example was the alternate take on Gone With the Wind, when the author's estate wanted the book impounded based on trademark or copyright (can't remember which) issues; instead, they were told to sue them after release. Of course, this excepts "gag rules" imposed by judges to prevent lawyers & principles from discussing the case in the media. The judges have no power to gag anyone not involved in the case.
Short version-- I don't think anyone could get this sort of gag order in the US. The 1st Amendment is pretty strong. And, in case the meaning isn't clear, here's the definition for antithetical.
"The Canadian Distributor, Raincoast Books managed to get an injunction prohibiting the people who recieved the books from talking about them"
That's right. Instead, they've asked the media to talk about the book and the story they've manufactured by getting the injunction. You just can't buy marketing like that.
they make this big of a fuss as another mode of publicity. Some people see others making such a big deal out of it, and they think, "Hey, maybe there's something to this." And bam...another reader.
this one wasn't listed under IT and Security
This comment contained copyrighted text and was removed at the request of the copyright owner under the terms of the DMCA.
What the hell is a bookplate?
Anyone who has purchased or otherwise obtained a copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince before the publication date of July 16th should contact Raincoast immediately at 1-800-663-5714 or 604-323-7100. After hours please contact 604-968-0027 or 604-841-9206 or info@raincoast.com
So, I'm wondering... if I just make a copy of the chapter titles (below, from here) and fantasize about what the chapters are about... is that wrong?
...surely it's a violation of free speech to prevent people from discussing a certain text just because it's popular?
Ron dies in chapter 9 of book 7.
Is a 'Great Canadien Superstore' kind of like Costco, only their shelves are lined with female Canadians of every type imaginable? Or would those be "Canadiennes"?
"...always new atoms but always doing the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday." -Richard Feynman
lol way to go 'Great Canadien Superstore'
You know what scholastic just said?
"No Books For You!"
"As a final layer of security, booksellers have been forced to sign legal forms acknowledging that if they break the embargo, they will never again be supplied with a book by Scholastic"
That doesn't care? OMG! Someone, somewhere, might have read the freakin' book before its release!!!! It's the end of the world as we know it!!!!!
Who cares?
sure it would... techincally, the book is publisher property until the contracted sell date. The stores ususally don't have to pay for the inventory until the date as part of the release date deal. The retailers are mearly holding the product so they can have it on time. The alternative to retailers not holding up their end of the deal is simply to not ship to those people! After all, they didn't follow the contract. Unfortunately that favors the large retailers like walmart that will always get the first shipments.. .leaving the small guys in the cold.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I have to add if he is half blooded whats the other half ? He must be pretty wasted for only half the fluid pumping threw his viens is blood ! heheheh
Distributors used to hold shiping books until the release, so store got their copies and could sell them the same day. The problem is shipping problems/delays meant some stores go their copies early and some got theirs late. The stores that got them late lost out on a lot of sales, and stores that got them early quickly sold out. So the solution is the stores enter into a voluntary agreement (if they do not agree the books arent shipped until after the release date) that they recieve it early, so shipping problems/delays can be fixed before release, and they hold the books until the release date. The arrangement benefits the store more then the publisher (the publisher generally makes the same amount of money no matter which particular store sells it) and customers who can depend on their favorite store having it on release day. Of course some people break the agreement through greed or just by accident and the publisher does it's best to minimize the damage. These agreements aren't oppressive schemes by the publishers, they actually benefit everyone. Stores that don't like it can take their chances.
In other news this week, several copies of the Bible were leaked. Matthew Mark, Luke, and John looking for an injunction to stop people reading it before it's due release date.
No sign yet of the Bible's popularity waning though.
Already, cracks of the Bible by notorious FUQ2 and B8TCH hacking groups have appeared on Usenet....
READY.
PRINT ""+-0
Clearly you know nothing about First Amendment law or the commercial code. The minute that someone buys the book, it's theirs and they can talk about. The injunction was for preventing people from talking about the book, not preventing the retailer from selling it. A book buyer who in good faith walks into a book store and buys a book before the street date is not the one at fault here. It's the retailer for selling the book. The minute I pay money for something in a store and recieve the goods - It's mine, although I don't own the copyright. If I were one of those guys it would be on Ebay right now.
Thalasar
Can anyone else say "Publicity Stunt"?
Where is the evidence that a leak like this is going to have any notable impact on the book's sales? The level of secrecy these companies try to maintain would make you think that a leaked copy was as bad for a book as having JLo in a movie.
I think that the secrecy doesn't actually matter at all to the publisher, but the idea that it has to be secret is what's actually important. They could care less if a thousand copies got out, as long as the public believes it's a secret, as long as they believe the publisher would kill to keep it that way... then it must be really important! I must get my copy first! So I know the secret before everyone else!!!
That's all well and good as a marketing tactic, but it's a little childish. And here we are with two stories on Slashdot in two days about this super-secret book.
Cheers.
But its not really a Constitutional issue. The vast majority of the law isn't, really. Constitutional issues just engage law review writers and producers of Law and Order because they're a lot sexier than the law of torts and state definitions of what exactly constitutes a sale (sample controversy: Bob makes an oral agreement to Sue that he will give her his copy of Harry Potter after it comes out if she goes on a date with him on Thursday. On Friday, after the date, Bob takes delivery of Harry Potter from UPS a day earlier than it should have arrived, reads it, and is disgusted to find that he ordered the English edition and has extraneous u's all over his book. Forgetting his earlier agreement with Sue, he burns the book in disgust. Does Sue sue for breach of contract, non-delivery of goods, or damage to her property? Answer: go to law school.)
Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
Doesn't it strike anyone as odd that they would accidently sell copies?
Decided to go buy HP 2 or 3?? for my daugther at midnight at my local WM (4 blocks away). Figured easier the the local book store with the big party. Standing around waiting with about 20 people. About 12:10 we flag down a manager, and ask where is the HP books?? He went back to the SECURITY room and brought out the display on a pallet with a hand forklift. Then he had to unwrap the unit, as it was shrink wrapped. He seemed to have NO clue why so many people wanted HP at midnight. Where is the planning, marketing awarness? oh yea, this is WM!
Never trust a man wearing a coat and tie!
Does this strike anybody else as more than a bit creepy? Ok, fine, the kiddies don't get to hang on to their precious prerelease copies, whatever. But, a court imposed gag order? They sell me something, in error. They then have an injunction put out ordering me to return it and forbidding me to talk about any part of it, presumably under some sort of penalty? WTF?
It'll be a lovely day indeed when the DRM enthusiasts we know and love from the electronics world start doing this. Hey kid, is that PSP hackable? Report to the distribution center for immediate impound of noncompliant device; a compliance officer(courtesy of Uncle Sam) will be along to assist you shortly.
They all die at the end.
So that DRM they were talking about last week in an article on here, was it Rot26?
Just read on news.google.com about this 19 year-old, Emerson, who started mugglenet.com -- a source of all things harry potter. J.K. found out about it and invited the kid to come meet her. Turns out J.K. wants to use the site to do cross references so the Harry Potter world is more coherent.
i -0507110173jul11,1,6770856.column?coll=chi-newsnat ionworld-hed
Read the Wall of Shame. The kid has a funny sense of humor. And the article says he hopes to be the world's greatest philanthropist, his fortune presumably made while he's at Norte Damn discovering alternative fuels. So he's a good kid, too. And home schooled.
I was impressed.
Here's the article.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ch
What comes first, finding a teacher or becoming a student?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
is this the stuff that matters?
/. care?
Harry Potter books? Never read one. Saw the movies though, when they came out on the movie network at my girlfriend or parents house (I don't have a TV where I live.) Does anyone here at
You can't handle the truth.
The moment it was put to PAPER it was considered published. You know, for all the talk about being more enlightened up in Canada when it comes to this sort of stupidity, this ranks right on up there with the top ten right at the moment.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
And then, the anxiety instantly dissapates, until the next must-have movie/book/cdmp3-ish thing. I suspect that this approach is the most effective way to profitably disseminate new media, or the distributors wouldn't use it. But it makes me wonder; how many fewer books would we need if people were patient and shared copies instead? My guess is that millions of the copies sold during the early frenzy will be read by one or two people, and then left on a shelf for 20 years collecting dust.
Its a real shame, there doesn't seem to be a bittorrent for physical objects...
Don't suppose you have a few examples of that statement handy anywhere, do you?
JK Rowling or her handlers has become a whore.
The main reason they've had to contrive a scenario where the loveable old man dies in this book is because the actor who played him died. This makes movies tricky to release as you have to replace a major character. So she's killed him to make it easier to make more money at the box office.
But then, why am I surprised? This is the same group who go after kids doing fan sites.
I wonder - when JK made it big, did she pay back any of the money she claimed on the dole to write the first book either directly or in taxes? Or did she head straight stateside to cuddle up to Warner, taking her public funding with her?
Never mind that, surely in America the speech of the end purchasers would have been protected by First Sale Doctrine? I would have thought Raincoast's only recourse would be against the actual bookstore.
One god, one market, one truth, one consumer.
If you don't want a book to be sold until a particular time, don't ship it to resellers.
You hit that nail right on the head. With today's shipping services, you can pretty much guarantee a specific delivery date. Shipping early and forcing retailers to hold back stock for the sake of hyping a release date is one of marketing's most assinine (sp?) behaviors. Although I see the logic from a business point of view, (if the product sucks, you still have a large first-wave of buyers before the word gets out,) it still sucks for the retailer and the consumer - the retailer has to use more storage space, and the consumer can't buy the product which is already in the store.
If music/book/movie publishers would consistently put out a quality product, maybe this market hype wouldn't be needed. I won't hold my breath for that to happen, though.
From a marketing point of view, this is a huge success. Just think about it... the ultra-tight security and the hype it created, and now this happens? I wonder if its really a mistake or a clever move.
I would wager that the action was intended more for the media than the general public. An injunction is much more likely to be followed by a large news agency than a person who lucked out and pre-bought a book early. As for the judge, it seems a bit harsh for an injunction, but on the other hand, I really don't care if the judicial system wants to help a publishing company protect their little secret for a few more days.
To address the potential for abuse, here's an example. I seem to remember a local comic store selling a new trading card game set a few days in advance of the official release date. A competing store complained, and as a result the offending store no longer receives the pre-sale inventory. Lets say it takes even 2 days to get the next major 'product' in stock after the release date. Customers buying products on day 1 are doing so because they REALLY want the product. If it isn't available at their usual hunting ground, they're going to go to the next best (or only) source of the product.
What retailer, big or small, wants to risk losing out on easy sales? I believe intentionally risking future sales to make a one-time advance profit is a bit too dangerous.
Seriously, it seems to me as though they're relying on greed (extra goodies) and ignorance (the injunction is unenforcable) to do the work. Given that typical 10 year olds are greedy and not very bright, this might work.
Probably the greater danger is unscrupulous parents trying to make a few thousand out of it by stealing the book from the kid and offering it for sale to the highest bidder. It is my guess that this is actually what the injunction is trying to stop, as that's detectable and tracable, whereas kids chatting at school is not.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
So is the gag order just on the ones who own the books.? What if a friend of mine has the book and tellsme the ending. If I then publish it online am I in the clear since I don't own the book ?
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
The Supreme Court has ROUNDLY REJECTED prior restraint!
Build a man a fire, he's warm for one night. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
I would have read it in a night, posted a summary on my blog, and given it to a friend to domated to a random library.
Sorry, but this bloody stupid over the top paranoia is starting to piss me off.
You could scan those books, put them on a torrent, and they would still sell a milllon copies. People like to own stuff.
Think about it, do we really need a library in our homes? no, pretty much everything I have I could have checked out or downloaded.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
It's been how many ours and there's no torrent? What's wrong with kids these days? So greedy.
Still, though, the botch was completely between the publisher and the retailer. If the retailer legally sold the book to the customer, the customer has committed no wrongs and should not be denied any rights.
The matter of whether I could care less about Scholastic's marketing strategies or Raincoast's pasting a target to their own backs should be completely between me and my concience.
Information wants to be free.
Entertainment wants to be paid.
You just want to be cheap.
It's just a book... yet another fuckin' awful Harry "shameless Tim Hunter rip-off dumbed down for kiddies" Potter book. Damn, I've seen far better writing in videogames (Max Payne, Final Fantasy 6, Marathon, Grandia 2, Shenmue).
The moment it was put to PAPER it was considered published. You know, for all the talk about being more enlightened up in Canada when it comes to this sort of stupidity, this ranks right on up there with the top ten right at the moment.
No kidding. The issues might have to do with what is considered fair use. I concur that I have trouble seeing this happening in the US simply because newspapers usually are given wide latitudes in reviewing books in terms of fair use rights. If the review was not within fair use rights, then the author could sue anyone who panned the work over unauthorized creation of derivative works.
IANAL, IMHO, etc....
Also, at least in the US as it has been explained to me, if I have A has a contract with B which limits how B can sell A's copyrighted work, if B sells the work to C in violation of those terms, A can't sue C. A can only sue B. This makes sense vecause C has not acted in a way that is either neglegent or in bad faith. In this case, they bought a book at a reputable reseller.
If one holds C responsible, then you go back to a buyer beware environment, where anything you buy could have contractual encumbrances of which you might have no knowledge yet bear responsibility to comply with them. This injunction seems to follow this line of reasoning. At least in the US, you can only be bound by a contract you agree to. Even if this is limited in scope to copyrighted works, it seems the Canadians may be closer to Stallman's "Right to Read" story than we are in the US!
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
As we all know, this atrocity was quite obviously made possible by modern technology. Peer To Peer networking, known to the tech-savvy as 'P2P', is used by book pirates around the world to infringe on author's rights.
BitTorrent is one such P2P technology that a majority of pirates use to deprive authors of their hard-earned income. "Its mere existance is a scourge to society," says a Book Writer's Association of America (BWAA) spokesman.
The BWAA hereby proclaims that it will do everything possible to stop these net-using, book-stealing crooks in order to protect the intellectual rights of authors everywhere. BitTorrent and other software like it must not be allowed into the hands of innocent people.
This has happened for almost every single one of the releases of Harry Potter. There's nothing "accidental" about the leaking of this book whatsoever.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
I have to add if he is half blooded whats the other half ?
Skin, bones, tissues, those sorts of things... He's a bit dry, but otherwise normal.
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. --Will
The injunction only applies to you if your name is Jane or John Doe
D6 63 0D 70 89 81 BB 8E 7B 7C 5F 5D 54 EA AB 73
I have to add if he is half blooded whats the other half Half-blood in the Harry Potter series refers to a witch or wizard with two wizarding parents, but at least one non-wizarding grandparent.
A witch or wizard who was born to non-wizarding parents (muggles) is called muggle-born (mudblood is "a really foul name for someone who was muggle born"). Most witches or wizards consider a half-blood to be a person with one pure-blood and one muggle-born parent. Some more fanatical witches and wizards take this fruther by saying hat if any of your grandparents were muggle-born then you are a half blood.
Essentially, one is only considered "pureblood" if one can trace their entire bloodline back several centuries at least through entirely wizarding (and presumably pureblood) families. Because of this there is a lot of inbreeding.
Famous Last Words: "hmm...wikipedia says it's edible"
So slashdot is carrying ads for Canadian bookshops now. Ho hum. Silly season?
Over in the real world, it's beginning to look like the source of the Valerie Plume leak was Karl Rove.
On /. people care about slashes and dots. And other characters that
together make a computer program.
/.
and I can live with that.-
/.? Tell us! Tell us then!!!
I dare you.
People also care about other obviously technology related stuff. Yeah! And also about philosophical implications/influences technology has on man.
And Tolkien. Let's not forget about Tolkien. -I personally hate the b*stard because he bores the pants off my butt. But it's an occasional topic on
It's either that or I have completely missed the point.
So WTF does a Harry Potter article do on
Harry Potter has nothing to do with technology. His stories are even less original then Tolkien's drivel! I believe I have a point here.
Now you may mod me down.
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
If it (or anything else for that matter) being released for sale on a certain day, then why do stores have it this early? Never hear of overnight shipping?? Why is it even activated in the POS terminal?? I have always wondered this. I remember back in '95 seeing Windows 95 stacked up in Sam's Club and up HIGH for like 3 weeks or something like that. I understand the vageries of trucking, but do things have to be in the retailer's hand that long?
Gorkman
I heard the analog version has better clarity and the ending is better, I can abide the digital versions nowwadays, so anyone got a warez torrent link to the analog copy?
Thanks, signed book plate for the first 5 torrents.
ZNXFBMK I wonder if every slashdotted article could hotlink the automated human test it would slow slashdot down? Automatic image generation isn't that hoopy fast.
#hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
I don't know if she can sue for breach of contract. Wether or not she will, would depend on the laws concerning prostitution in the state the date took place I suppose.
We do not live in the 21st century. We live in the 20 second century.
Move along, nothing to see here...
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
I can't fathom why anyone would think these are the first 15 copies that have been taken.
These books are sitting in the back of thousands of stores across the world. Does anybody seriously believe that not a single stockboy managed to get into the box? No bookstore owners or managers thought they'd get a head start on the book?
Yeah, I know steps were taken, but come on. Nothing described there was magic.
IANAL, but surely it is also a violation of the basic concept of a contract that it is enforceable against third parties who have not agreed to it (those who bought the book at the store). Or maybe you have a different concept of a contract in Canada? Remind me not to move up there if this is the case.
Or maybe authors in Canada already have DMCA-like protections even for analog works. I.e. that the author can litterally dictate who can and can't access a work.
I used to think that the US was leading the world away from balanced approaches regarding these topics, but this decision from Canada really has me concerned. I guess Canada is not as balanced on these matters as I would like to think.
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
I've read a lot of negative comments about the Harry Potter series here, and even more 12 hours ago when the story was on fark, but for all of you who haven't had a chance or desire to read one of the books, stop by the local library and give one a chance.
The stories are not high-brow literature, nor are they intended to be. They are, however, good fantasy. The storylines are entertaining, and they have a fair bit of depth to them. The world is also deep, and pretty self-consistent. The books are humerous on many levels, and also at times a bit more insiteful than they are perhaps given credit for. A lot of the themes that started to emerge in Order of the Phoenix, and that will likely escellate in Half-blood Prince are especially pertinent today. (Although perhaps the death-eater/nazi comparison is more obvious, there are subtle but interesting parallels between the situation with voldamot and his followers and more modern things such as terrorism.) The books contain interesting moral delimas and gray areas (the position of the house elves, S.P.E.W and the take of the other characters offers interesting parallels to the philosophy of neitzsche for example) and are also just plain a lot of fun.
I think the biggest problem with the Harry Potter series is that a lot of people will overlook it BECAUSE it's so popular. I know that I avoid things that are fairly popular because I think that in general the masses have terrible taste, and if most people like something, then I'll probably think it's crap. Luckily I did check out Harry Potter and found that in this case, the public was right, the books are good, and maybe other people who have avoided it for the same reason might find that they too enjoy the stories.
Famous Last Words: "hmm...wikipedia says it's edible"
These agreements aren't oppressive schemes by the publishers, they actually benefit everyone.
You make a good argument, however
Raincoast Books managed to get an injunction prohibiting the people who recieved the books from talking about them and demanding that they return the books to Raincoast until Friday
Yep, grandma buys little Timmy a copy of that new "Harry Potty thing" that she knows he likes, he reads about it and talks about it at school. Suddenly armed feds bust into the playground and take him out.
Clearly you know nothing about First Amendment law Not to belittle your point, but being Canadian myself, as well as being surrounded by other Canadians, I feel fairly safe saying that we don't pay much attention to the first amendment. Google tells me that part of the first amendment talks about freedom of speech. Presumably that's what you meant to refer to, instead of a document the rest of the world doesn't care about.
I knew it would only be a matter of time.
.deviatefromtheabsolute.
The UCC only applies to transactions conducted between a business and another business, not a business and an individual.
Dead wrong. The UCC applies, in part i.e., Article 2, to commercial transactions. Some provisions are specifically targeted to merchant-to-merchant transactions, e.g., Section 2-201(2), but typically the provisions apply to party-to-party transactions, where the UCC defines parties as: a person that has engaged in a transaction or made an agreement subject to [the Uniform Commercial Code]. From Sec 1-201.
As for your statement regarding $500, this is also horribly wrong. You are thinking of the statute of frauds, which requires a transaction for an amount or value over $500 to be committed to writing (see 2-201 above). It is designed to prevent fraud when people are contracting for things of large value (whereas transactions with smaller values may be enforced if there is only an oral contract).
Please, google is your friend. The knowledge of law on slashdot is bad enough without comments like that mucking it up more. I'd be less harsh if you had spent the time to do a little research before hitting reply.
-truth
I had a steady B+ in my AI class until I failed the Turing test...
That's all fine. But what the fuck has it to do with demanding that customers who purchased a book from said stores return them? Nothing; unless they're shrink-wrapping EULAs on books now.
The stores that got them late lost out on a lot of sales... the solution is the stores enter into a voluntary agreement (if they do not agree the books arent shipped until after the release date)
Well, it may be voluntary, but it doesn't sound like the stores really have a lot of choice, unless they want to "miss out on a lot of sales".
It's official. Most of you are morons.
Not for millions of books to thousands of locations on the same day. (Just think of it as a paper version of the Slashdot effect.)
Remember this is an injunction not a court decision. Injunctions are a temporary measure to halt further damage until formal court case can be completed. For example, if I claim that you have used my copywrited material illegally in your product, I can file for an injunction to halt all sales of the product until such time as a court case can be completed. In this situation the publisher may have grounds to file suit etc. and the injunction is a measure to limit that damage until the court case is resolved. I agree it is kind of silly to order 15 people to not talk about it, but it is only for a short period of time.
What I find funny is: this book has already sold more pre-release copies than any single book in history EVER. It's current and future records only to be broken by the next Potter installment in a few years. So... who gives a flying expletive if 15 copies were 'leaked'!? --yeah, the new harry potter? no, i'm a huge fan. but, i'm not going to buy this new one because some anonymous canadian blogger spoiled half the plot.-- HUH!? or how about this: --listen people, this LEAK could drastically affect sales. we need to nip this bugger in the bud RIGHT NOW!-- None of this makes sense. So to everyone 'up in arms' over the dramatic leak,( DUN DUN DUN!!) please, find something useful to do okay? ahkay.
superstore treats the staff like shit. And pays them shit. This was done to get back at management. One time I bought a book and the cashier didn't even scan it. She pretended to and put the book in a bag. Does that sound like a great place to work?
Witness the other side of the coin of free markets. While they create wealth and provide incentives for creativity and business sense, they also create some artifical and nonsensical rules. Time-to-market is one of those. We've seen it in the warez scene 15 years ago, when 0-day cracks were magically more valued even though the usual communication channels (disks copied on the school yard) were too slow to make an actual difference between a 0-day and a +3-day. And due to availability and timezones, it wasn't much of an indicator for skill, either (not to mention that a good portion of the 0-day cracks sucked and needed to be fixed with a later release).
Forward to 2005. Movie release dates have been crucial for a few years already, even though for all practical purposes it makes no difference. Now book release dates enter the picture. Again, no difference except for the marketing pressure that the free market has created, where immediacy is somehow a value, even where it has no actual usefulness.
So why does it matter? Because the market says it does. No other reason at all. If the king doesn't like red then you don't dress in red. If the market says (via marketing people, its inofficial spokespersons) that it's important, then you obey and the ridiculousness of it all will not become aparent until the king has fallen and our children all wonder why their ancestors didn't see that he wasn't really a god.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
I can't find it anywhere?
Can anyone point me in the right direction?
Sincerely,
Schoolastic Inc
"More Questions then Answers" needs a comma in the middle, and indicates narration of events in time (first more questions, then answers). "More Questions than Answers" means the number of questions was greater than the number of answers. Always use than for comparisons, kids. Incidentally, you probably meant "preliminary injunction" rather than "protective injection".
Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
"Raincoast and Bloomsbury, along with our global partners, have promised fans of Harry Potter that we would do our best to ensure that they would be the first to discover the secrets contained within Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on July 16th," said Jamie Broadhurst Director of Marketing for Raincoast Books, "and we felt that we had to take all necessary legal action to keep our promise to Canadian fans."
e tailed&sortBy=name&for=people&attribute=name&match Method=is&searchString=Kirsti+M.+Gill&objectId=746 5
Oh Jesus galloping Christ. LEGAL ACTION. for spoilers. in a CHILDREN'S NOVEL.
From the Polite Letter with Teeth: The terms of the Court Order mean that if you have obtained a copy of the book early you must not disclose or reveal any information about its contents or give any copies that you may have to anyone else. The Court Order also requires anyone who has a copy or copies of the book to return them to Raincoast immediately.
http://raincoast.com/harrypotter/injunction.html
If anyone would care to join me in informing Madam Justice Kirsti-with-an-I M. Gill she's a stupid git, her office may be reached here: http://www.dir.gov.bc.ca/gtds.cgi?esearch=&view=d
you can have my violent video games when you pry them from my cold, dead hands.
Prime UID Club
As an aside, these days, seems like there's no such thing as relevant, important news, either.
There are, they're just being drowned out. There was a nice show on BBC a few weeks ago, where one of the points the made was there there ain't such a thing as "news" anymore, nor are their "accidents", "scandals" or "debates". There are only "breaking news", "tragic accidents", "revealing scandals" or "controversial debates". Our daily life and communications are being taken over by marketing speech, and a principle of marketing speech is that everything you say is important. So you don't go to the toilet anymore, you "have an urgent requirement for a primary bodily function".
News suffer because everything is being hyped up in this constant attempt to draw attention. The real damage is that you can't avoid the tragedy. If everything else is hyped, you have no choice but to hype your product or news item as well, because otherwise it would never get any attention at all.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
Don't want to give away the whole story, but Harry against all odds, manages to win at the end!
They're doing all of these protective measures to get people to talk about the book. It's just a publicity stunt
Google tells me that part of the first amendment talks about freedom of speech.
I wish they wouldn't use such confusing words. Is that free as in beer...?
You said more questions *then* answers.
So where are the answers, now that you've asked the questions?
Right after the questions (or did you mean than?).
Are there any legal experts out there who can explain how the publishers can get an injunction preventing people with whom they have no contract from talking about a book? Do they just have to show that significant damage would be done to their business in order to get an injunction?
It seems very odd to me that this is possible - it's not like the books were stolen.
Yes, yes I'll be here all week...
You misspelled "I'll get my coat"
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2005/07/11/1126 938-cp.html
If you're a zombie and you know it, bite your friend!
Joke status: Dead...
Disconnect and self-destruct, one bullet at a time.
"Disregarding the racist humor in this post"
I think you disregarded any type of common sense or intelligence when you wrote this sentence.
1) First, Canadian is not a "race"
2) Second, making fun of someone based on nationality (which is what you meant) is considered good sport. For example, in your own native Canada, Quebec seems to be stocked with a higher than average amount of asshats.
3) Aan injunction against people talking about the plot of a children's book makes the judge an asshat. And if Canada as a nation agrees with that decision, then you are a nation of asshats.
Please, do yourself a favor and look up the definition of racist. Your main complaint is that his criticism is on the mark.
VOLDEMORT: Dumbledore never told you about your father, did he?
HARRY: Nooooooo! It's not true!
HARRY leaps from the battlements of Hogwarts but is rescued by a passing Quidditch player. After having his hand magically regrown by MADAME POMFREY, he tries to get it on with CHO CHANG, not realising at this point that she is in fact his twin sister.
When I am king, you will be first against the wall.
Most of this is going to sound redundant, but I'm something of an insider for Barnes & Noble at least so maybe someone will find this enlightening.
The book IS going to be hugely popular. Nobody is denying that. And 15 leaked copies on the other side of the world aren't going to hurt any of your local bookstores.
BUT... Harry Potter is huge. Many B&N stores are receiving 4 times as many copies as are reserved, and the number of reserved copies per store is freakin' huge. Keep in mind some stores are getting considerably more than just 4 times as many. When the book goes on sale at midnight, stores will be in the midst of a whole Harry Potter festival of sorts - games and activies based on the books, other areas of the stores (music) will be closed, etc etc. The book is going at 40% off, and it's expected to sell out almost instantly regardless of the seemingly obscene number of books being shipped. We're talking multicolored wristbands designate lines that stretch outside of stores, fire marshall occupancy limits (which doesn't happen too often in the bookstore world), and full staffs working into the wee hours of the morning and starting again the next day.. The release of this book is as big as Star Wars, and I don't say that jokingly.
So back to the problem - it's been said many times already that if the strict on sale dates didn't exist, some stores would get crushed and others reap huge rewards based purely on shipping or handling that may or may not have been under their control. Imagine if Star Wars was slated for 8 theaters in your area, but only 2 of them had it for the first 2 weeks - that would have huge effects on those theaters for a long time to come. Same idea. I won't even get into the price premium that could be charged by the few stores that, by chance, got HP early.
So for those 15 leaked copies on the other side of the world, in and of themselves they are a non-issue. However, if nothing is done, it sets a precedent for the strict on sale date being unimportant, and then you've got the fiasco mentioned above, and THAT is why they can't be ignored.
Of course there are marketing and hype concerns, that's a given, but this is much about protections for stores (of all sizes) as anything else.
If you get nervous, just remember that there are a few billion other people who don't really give a damn.
I guess all new books books, music, and movies will come with some kind of nda from now on. i really don't understand why u would care about ppl talking about your product. unless u knew it sucked really bad or something. i heard someone dies in the book, so maybe they wanna keep the suspense. but some ppl would know before others anyway (faster shipping, faster reading, etc). the conspiracy theorist in me thinks it's all planned, to secure more time on the evening news. cuz u know only the really important stories are reported.
i guess raincoast is taking notes from jobs. rarely do u see this kind of zeal for release dates. someone knows too much too early, oh the humanity! all part of the hype machine. btw, i am the only one who read the company's name as "raincoaters"?
The millions of books doesn't matter as much as the thousands of locations, since all of the books going to the same location can go in one package, so we are really only talking about thousands of packages. Fedex was able to handle 800,000 packages one day during a Christmas shipping season before they bought out a ground operation to compliment their airborne delivery. I really don't think they would have a problem with the task. UPS handles the warehousing and shipping operations for several companies; I'm sure they are up to the task as well.
Could you imagine a public library that had a sign saying: "All the phat lewt you can imagine, 0-day bookz for free!"? That's where all the cool kids would be. (er, sorry, all the elite kids... er, sorry, all the 31337 kids... er, sorry, all the |33+ kids...)
You might have to, you know, whistle correctly to get the door to open, I guess, for extra geek points.
I remember a front page story in a local paper right before the third book came out about kid who found a copy in a grocery store a week before it was actually released. But there was certainly no court intervention. The publisher could use this kind of thing as a marketing strategy. A couple weeks before the release date, start making noise about stores "accidentally" selling copies, and tell people not to buy any copies that might be available. The stores could keep two or three copies quietly on the shelf. I know I'm a lot more likely to buy a Harry Potter book if I think I'm the only one who has it. Plus, it's only going to generate more interest if people start hearing about it on the news.
Get a Free PSP
Leaked copies of a book doesn't make a difference in book sales. Of those 15 copies, what odds do you have of someone actually reading the whole thing (remember the thing is mainly targeted at young readers and likely multiple readers per copy) in those 4 days? It's not anything like the movie analogy you gave because a movie is a fixed amount of time and seeing it early does make a difference. You see a movie and invest a whole 2-3 hours and you're done. Four days early would be a huge difference for the theaters that get stiffed. If you start selling books a couple days early, you run out a couple days early and people go elsewhere. It happens all the time: Item A goes on sale at store B and sells out. People start saying "They have it over at store C" rinse, lather, repeat. I say sell it when you get it, pay more for faster shipping, get bigger profits if you can manage to keep the thing on your shelves. Power to the smart people, not just to the ones playing in the artificially level playing field.
Heroscape, it's like legos combined with anachronistic wargames.
Nothing described there was magic.
/me ducks
No, the magic's described inside the book.
1. Those who say the books are just for kids have no idea. Whereas most of the readers are kids of varying ages, I would think at least 40% of the readers are adults. Think of all the people you know who have read the books, or seen the movies - there are a lot of them, aren't there?
2. Lets turn this around and think of it another way - for those of you old enough, would it have changed the shock and surprise for you if you had heard about "No Luke, I am your father" before you saw the movie? Or, more recently, were pissed off that the beeb decided to let you know the Daleks were involved with Bad Wolf before the episode came out and how much better it would have been if it would have come as a surprise.
Suspense and surprise are why most of us read books, that's why murder mysteries (from which much of Harry Potter is derived) are so popular. Do we really want Peroit to say "They all did it" before the end of the movie - of course not. With the explosion of the internet, keeping these juicy little details are harder and harder and I for one applaud Rowling and her publishers for doing everything they can so I don't find out that _____ dies before I have a chance to find out for myself.
I don't understand why people are so offended that they are trying to keep the plot under wraps, it's not a freedom of speech issue or a suppression of rights, in the end its only a book, but, as has been so ably argued above, that has transcended the realms of normal book publishing.
Take note, take note, O world,
To be direct and honest is not safe.
This is pretty sick, and unless they signed something or accepted some terms and conditions when they opened the book im pretty confused as to how this is even legal?
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
You're just being used to add to the hype. Hell, even /. is writing about it!
Or think of it as Scholastic (or Rowling) trying to impose on readers the hardware equivalent of the EULA. This is something which already goes beyond the scope of ordinary copyright law (don't duplicate the one physical copy of the book you have). If I'm a reviewer I'd put out my review as soon as I finish speed-reading the Half-Blood Prince. Yes, I agree, someone should be testing the legality of this arrangement. But with the expenses involved in any law suit, it appears better just to respect the publisher's demands.
I'm a sci-fi vegan: I don't want the aliens to think we have as much right to live as the fried chickens we eat.
They may have been purchased "legally" but they weren't sold legally.
The contract between the publisher and the book store almost certainly states that the books remain the property of the publisher until 12:01 am Saturday, despite being placed in the custody of the store. If so, then whoever broke the seal on the crate and took the book out committed an act of theft.
Thus the book is now stolen goods, and you can't keep stolen goods even if you paid for them in good faith. The rightful owner may reclaim your book, and your only recourse is with the store that sold it to you.
It's like you pawned a watch, and went back to reclaim it according to the terms of the pawn ticket (a binding contract), but the pawn broker had already sold it. He stole it from you and you could go and take it back, if you found out who it went to. Or suppose you rented an apartment, and before your lease expired, the landlord broke into your place and sold all your shit on eBay. Same thing, you could take it back, and all the buyer could do would be to sue your landlord for the purchase price.
Now, assuming the goods are stolen, any use of the goods to commit theft of trade secrets or copyright violation would also be forbidden. Again, there are other parallels for this; you can't trade stocks on the basis of a confidential internal company memo faxed to you by mistake, or you'll be busted by the SEC for insider trading.
-ccm
Too much Law; not enough Order.
Look, this is real simple. It's about contract violation. The publisher has a contract with bookstores across the world stating that no one will sell before a specific date. The bookstore violated that contract with the publisher. The publisher has effectively now violated the contract with all the other publishers. The court is issuing an injunction to attempt to limit the damage from the contract violation. You can talk all you want about whether or not it hurts the publisher, but the fact is, it IS a contract and it is their RIGHT to protect that contract. As far as the customers who purchased that book, think of it this way: If I somehow peek into Coca-Cola's factory and learn their secret recipe, I've obtained a trade secret. The court will stop me from revealing the trade secret. If I tell a friend, the court will stop my friend from revealing it - that's how trade secrets work. Although my friend did nothing wrong, my friend can not reveal the trade secret. There are damn good reasons to protect contracts and trade secrets. And it's the publisher's right to decide when they want to exercise their right.
I didnt know, Harry Potter was the Inventor of the Krogoth.
I imagine the publisher is being paid for the books which have been sold so I am really not sure that you can argue they have been stolen but even if that argument does stick and the person who bought the books does return them and gets his/her money back I can't see any way they can be prevented from talking about what they have read.
as with the last book, it's not quite up to scratch, if the book was any good it would be great publicity for the release date, however since the book is probably mediocre they want it kept under wraps till the first day, hype it up and hope that impressive sales figures become the talking point NOT the fact that it is nowhere near as good as the first three in the series... which of course weren't written by a Billionaire.
Freedom of speech? you lot have some issues you need to deal with.. in private.
Why bother telling people they can't talk about the book? We all know it's Dumbledore that dies anyway, it was 'revealed' ages ago.
The point of the injunction is precisely to prevent that.
The whole idea of injunctions is to criminalize behaviour that would otherwise be perfectly legal. Anyone with access to a sufficiently persuasive lawer can get any behaviour they choose made illegal in this way, albeit for a short time.
Is is about a wizard apprentice who does stuff.
Someone who bought the book is a bona fide third party and cannot be liable for the illegal actions of others. How much time to read a Harry Potter novel? The big one took me just one weekend...
I would just read the thing and review it, put the review on the Net.
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
Is that where they sell jerseys and stuff from that Montreal NHL team?
In what way is this book either:
:-(
o News for nerds?
o Anything about technology?
Slashdot must be getting short of news when its covering books for 10 year olds.
This court order would be manifestly illegal, and henceforth void.
All of this shit just because Hermione finally dies in this book.
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
... marketing 101
1st: breach of contract != theft. so, there is NO stolen goods here.
2nd: first sale doctrine guarantees that bona fide buyers of a book in a fscking bookstore get to keep it and use it normally.
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
I think you better run the text twice through. That should do!
I like the movie analogy - but would spin it differently. I hate going to the movies - I hate the trails and previews - they spoil things. I went to see the Matrix because someone made me - I had no idea what it was about - I kinda enjoyed it. I actually kind of enjoy not knowing whats going to happen next in a movie / book.
On the whole book reviews and ads and covers DONT tell you everything thats going to happen. There might be a drawing of a bear, so you know the bear is kind of important to the plot - but thats it.
So spoilers suck, but getting this uptight about release times is purely soleley and only for PR purposes - that much air time would make the Harry Potter franchise a loss maker if they had to buy it. They want this thing to sell more than Dan Brown!
1. the publishers could arrange distribution in crescent order of payload size (smaller stores, that buy less books, served first)
2. as the other poster indicated, "voluntarily" is a strong word; in case, you can breathe voluntarily too.
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
I agree the secrit around a children's book is inane.
But doesn't this just smell of an intentional publicity stunt? Great way to get another couple of front page stories on CNN.
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
I agree the security around the release of a children's book is inane. It seems solely designed to create hype about the security itself.
And doesn't anyone think that the small "leak" might itself be a publicity stunt, to get another few front page articles on CNN? That is far more valuable monetarily than the cost of any supposed leak. And showing the publishers doing good by offering signed copies, also adds to the PR.
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
Injunctions, in my jurisdiction, need a binomial to be issued: fumus bono iuris (the "smoke" of the good right) and periculum in mora (danger in delaying).
In casu, none of those are present.
There is no periculum in mora, because no irreparable damage will come from people discussing the book, or doing anything that would be legal anyway about it (if the book sucks, people will find out soon enough anyway).
There is no fumus bono iuris because third-party bona fide buyers are exempt from problems ocurring upstream in the distribution chain. For the love of $DEITY, if I enter a big bookstore, buy a book and pay with my credit card it's assumed that I thought in good faith that it was legal to buy that book. The first sale doctrine makes it legal any licit use of the book, even if the book was sold to me in breach of contract. And no, the book is not a stolen good. If I had bought the book from the back of a van, then it could be.
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
But they're entertaining. Actually, it only took me four to five hours to read any of them (except for the last one that was double the size of the others) so, it's a good thing to do in a Friday night for a married man while the wife and kid sleep (I got insomnia)
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
Why are they so heavy handed? it's a story book largely written for kids.
Of course we know why, there's too much money being made and that's when things get nasty. They would sooner have people waiting outside of book shops at 12 midnight to get the latest book than find out on the web that it sucks. Seeing two Potter films was enough to see that its all a bit formulaic.
Raincoast books is the Canadian publisher of Harry Potter, and has nothing to do with Scholastic, the American publisher.
Speaking of which, why is it that the American versions contain different text than the ROTW (Rest of the World) version? I mean, even the title of the first book is different between the British/Canadian/Aussie version and the American edition -- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone vs. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the US. The Philosopher's Stone is well-known, and changing the title to The Sorcerer's Stone seems odd.
Book leaked July 7 and an injunction July 9? Wish the court system worked that quickly in the states. I believe I would have probably read the book before the store realized it was sold - it is hardly "War and Peace."
Shutup, I want the bookplate FFS :-p
If you like what I've said here, and want to read more, go to http://www.krillrblog.com
That wasn't so much insightful as wishful thinking on the part of someone who isn't a manager.
We used to have a culture where management never took any heat for anything, which was a bad thing. But expecting someone to take responsibility for something they had no realistic knowledge of or control over (and expecting managers to supervise all staff all the time in case someone makes one little mistake is just that situation) then holding them accountable is as absurd as any other feel-good political correctness, and about as constructive.
I'm not a manager, BTW, just a guy who believes in credit where it's due and not assigning blame randomly just because something went wrong.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
Your tinfoil hat is slipping. :-)
Seriously, this is a real logistical problem for big releases like this. Some store, somewhere, through no fault of their own and no ill will on the part of the publisher, will see their delivery held up because of a road accident, or a fire at a warehouse, or any of 101 other unlikely reasons that become near certainties when things are scaled up.
The only reason a store would lose out on a lot of sales without agreeing is if it were the unlucky one here. However, with the sort of numbers you're talking about, quite often someone is that unlucky one. As the GP pointed out, it's therefore in everyone's interest to agree a common release date so the logistics (and any logistical problems) can be dealt with in good time.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
So is selling on stolen property, but the police will still take it back from the (innocent) buyer and return it to its rightful owner.
Before anyone gets in a mess, I'm not saying these two situations are equivalent or making any statement about physical vs. intellectual property here. I'm just demonstrating that there are cases where the sort of action talked about here can be used by the legal system for genuine reasons.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
I know, that word doesn't mean what I think it means, but still... what legal theory supports preventing someone who bought a book in good faith without engaging in any agreement (or even reading a notice) to keep the details of the book secret from talking about what they read?
I went to the last HP Spectacular release date event, the store made it clear that they had enough copies for every person currently in the store with about 1200 extra and STILL there were people standing by the register offering stupid $$ to people who had pre-reserved for their copy. Those same people would have been willing to pay 5-6x cover for 4-5 days advance since they were offering 2-3x for a couple hours advance.
Food not Bombs is a nice platitude but it breaks down when you notice that the Bombees are usually well fed
That covers the retailer not being allowed to sell the book, but the guy who bought it in good faith has no contract with the publisher, what's the logic behind an injunction against him?
It's great there's so much buzz about a childrens book. Bad because alot of the hype is bogus.
I'm Australian, which means I grew up about as far from the US as you can get and still be on the same planet, and I knew about the first amendment years before I came to the US. Not caring about how the US government works just because you don't live in the US seems really really stupid. Particularly for a Canadian! It's like living next to a big factory that occasionally belches weird-smelling smoke and not bothering to find out what's going on inside.
I don't see how they can possibly do anything to the people who bought the book. (besides attempt to bribe them) It was legally sold to them, in good faith, with no agreement of any kind, other than "you give me book, I give you money." Even if they did have your name from a credit card recipt, they shouldn't be able to to jack about it, and if they tried, they should be on the receiving end of a harassment lawsuit.
The only ones legally liable are the stores that sold copies early, who have broken a written agreement with the publisher. (they should...er... get the book thrown at them?)
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
Of course, by the time they get a name to replace the "John Doe", the review is published... Big fricken deal - the can is open, the worms are everywhere, get over it...
Iraq is still not too great and Kim Jong Il just pressed some red button. Now back to the marines who are trying to recover the leaked book copies.'
Welcome to the real world.
I'm sure you will at least read about them ;)
Anyone checked if this is a dupe? I was going to post an insightful reply, but then applying the formulas from my STATS 221 class, I figured this must be a dupe.
I mean, worse come to worse, he could've just copied it off CBC.
How they managed to get a BC Supreme Court judge to play ball is beyond me.
If the can is open, we should see the "worms" soon. If we don't, well, maybe there is no can [open].
-- CaptSolo Weblog
nah, I'd say the publisher just didn't give them enough cash to pimp it. I work at one, and few weeks before episode 3 came out there was a big thing at midnight where they were releasing all the ep3 toys. They'd be advertising it on the in store radio for a couple weeks before that, and it got the store manager in there at midnight on a saturday to make sure everything got out like it was supposed to. I'm curious as to what it'll be like come this weekend. There hasn't been the pimpage for this book as that, there's a thing at the service desk for pre orders, and that's pretty much it. The one I work at is in the middle of no where which I'm sure has something to do with it, but there is a marked difference between the two.
11 was a racehorse
12 was 12
1111 Race
12112
It's always easier to claim ignorance. For that matter, it's always easier to be ignorant.
Doesn't anyone see this as particularly fascist? Businesses are supposed to be our SERVANTS, not the other way around. We PAY THEM for goods and services and they bend over backwards to earn their pay. Sadly, this dynamic has been damaged. Capitalism has failed in exactly the same way that communism did. (Note: I'm not a communist) Communism fell apart because some "pigs were more equal than others". It would appear that this same rot has happened within the capitalist system. Some "pigs (Bill Gates, Dick Cheney, Darl McBride, Martha Stewart, the Walton/Wal-mart family) are more equal than others (YOU)". Wake up people. You're being screwed by the bouncing smiley face at Wal-mart.
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
Despite the tremendous lockdown effots, these books got into the wild. To quote one of the people in Jurassic Park: "Life found a way."
- First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then ???, then profit.
They should have taken a lesson from Monica Lewenski: when buying books pay cash and do not use your discount card unless you want other people to know what you have purchased.
If someone is passing you on the right, you are an asshole for driving in the wrong lane.
I learned from the **AA and SCO
You don't buy a book, you buy the permission to read it.
[;-)]
It's more a case of me making a fuss about an American mentioning first amendment rights in relation to something that takes place in Vancouver. They carry no standing here. Had he just said what he actually meant, free speech, then I would have had no problem with the comment.
Just because I live right next to a very large ape doesn't mean I should have to grunt when I want to speak with it.
My wife works at a Waldenbooks. If, on opening night, even a single box is open, and they're visually checked when people go back into the storeroom to get other things, someone WILL be fired. This is serious. A store that leaks HP&THBP will not be able to purchase ANY Scholastic book, ever again. That's part of their contract. And the company that owns the store would probably fire the employee, and possibly the manager of the store. They're taking it pretty seriously.
. Define sqrt(x) as something really evil like (x / rand()), and bury it deep. Watch your coworkers go nuts.
I thought it was interesting to observe that Amazon sold one million of the eight million new Potter books expected to be sold this weekend. This gives some insight into Amazon's overall market penetration.
Amazon is selling and shipping at a big discount. Most other booksellers and department stores like Walmart are doing likewise as a loss leader. So we cant say Amazon's campaign is out of the ordinary.
Just out of interest, if they're going to sell that quickly why knock 40% off?
I am trolling
I tried to calculate the equivalent "movie blockbuster" for the opening weeking of Half Prince sales. It is expected to open at eight million sales. I multiply this by $8- half way between children and adult price movie tickets- to predict the equivalent movie revenue. This gives me $64 million dollars, or a pretty good movie. Its all the more impressive because I suspect a lot fewer people desire to read a 700 age book than see a theatre movie.
"Yeah, and the Big Mac is the best selling meal in America."
My favorite: "Budweiser is the best-selling beer in America, by a long shot."
Harry Potter is more like Guinness. Not necessarily the best, but damned good.
Microsoft is to software what Budweiser is to beer.
Okay, I've never actually read or watched any of the Harry Potter books or movies, but my sister is obsessed with them. I remember reading this article and annoying the heck out of my sister by stating that Harry Potter was a fraud
I'd alohomora it!
alt.binaries.e-book, then #bookz on Undernet
There is something to be said about pre point-2-point, namely, broadcasting a book. Rather hard to put the entropy back in the tube, what?
> Raincoast Books managed to get an injunction prohibiting the people who recieved the books from talking about them and demanding that they return the books to Raincoast until Friday.
Why don't they just send in the Aurors to perform a memory charm on the muggles?
How you doin' with those thetans, Tom? Give my regards to Xenu when your head finally explodes from all the mental dissonance.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
a lot of it has to do with attracting reservations. As I said, many stores are receiving 4 times as many copies as are reserved, so if that 40% discount is enough to attract 5 registrations from customers who would normally buy from another store, that's another 20 copies actually shipped for release. When the book goes on sale everywhre at the same time, it forces competition based on how much the store has to offer its customers.
If you get nervous, just remember that there are a few billion other people who don't really give a damn.
Do you think the "leaking" could just be a PR stunt, kids?
I don't want to sell you death sticks.
"Yes," Harry said, gripping his wang very tightly, and moving into the middle of the deserted classroom. He tried to keep his mind on flying, but something else kept intruding.... Any second now, he might hear his mother again... but he shouldn't think that, or he would hear her again, and he didn't want to... or did he?
O_______O
Something silver-white, something enormous, erupted from the end of his wang
Meh, anyhow, it seemed interesting to me and the explanation of the reason for the dialect kind of made sense to me. Heck, that's how grammar and spelling evolve in general. How many Americans spell or pronounce aluminium properly?
That's the point, though--the retailer didn't legally sell the book to the customer, as the retailer was not at that time authorized to make that sale.
Boy, there really are some idiotic moderators on Slashdot. How in the world is the parent post off-topic? I quit.
"Accio 15 copies!"
All humans are mortal. Socrates is a human. Socrates is dead.
defence is an admissible variation on the more standard 'defense'.
"How like you to drag your keyboard to a gun fight." - Aaron Bedard (BANE)
Here's anther spoiler.
The "Defense Against the Dark Arts" professor is one of the villains.
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
Is that just ./ code for "We appreciate the service you have provided, Grammar Nazi, but not enough to award you karma" or is it "Hah, look at this guy, he thinks people on ./ might have a fourth-grade comprehension of the English language. l0l n00b"?
Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
I'll just put myself on the waiting list for the audio book at the library. I have this thing called "patience" that allows me to enjoy "delayed gratification." More people should try it. Of course, given the popularity of patience and delayed gratification in the USA, you;d think it required 20 years of Buddhists meditation training.
OK, I was at the "Serenity" screening a few weeks ago, but that's different. My wife got the tickets from a friend of ours who was stalking Fandango to find the link to buy tickets online.
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
works at that Superstore. she said it was the immigrants who cant read english, they stocked the books by accident.
Almost seems like we have an echo around here.
(I don't know Canadian law, but in a lawful and just world...) The contract between the retailer and seller has no word-as-law to anyone except the people who entered into the contract, namely, the distributor and retailer. The customer never agreed to anything, either implicitly (existing law) or explicitly (contract).
Information wants to be free.
Entertainment wants to be paid.
You just want to be cheap.
Since most Americans can't read or write Canadienese, even if the text of HP&THBP is released on the Internet, they won't understand it. No doot aboot it, eh.
"You'll get nothing, and you'll like it!"
It's more a case of me making a fuss about an American mentioning first amendment rights in relation to something that takes place in Vancouver.
The subject of this subthread is why it wouldn't have happened in the US (not that there's any lack of artful stupidity in the US code, of course), so in that context I think that "first amendment" is actually appropriate.
I'm assuming that the B&N store you work at is somewhere in the US? And you probably live somewhat close to that store, say on the same side of the world as that store. Then those 15 books weren't sold on the other side of the world, last I checked Canada was still your neighbour on your side of the world.
Viewed in that light, I'll agree with you.
Who Cares?
Um sorry that's not quite right. By selling the book, receiving funds for it and providing the goods for the funds, a sale has taken place. By its actions clearly the bookstore intended a sale to take place. The customers didn't steal the books. The goods are the consumers. The publisher can certainly sue the retailer for breaking the street date but that's something entirely different.
No, it's not a sale. The retailer wasn't legally allowed to sell it yet.
Someone can only sell you something if they have the rights to sell it to you. If you knowingly "purchase" something from from proceeds of crime, you're commiting a crime, and you can be jailed for it.
If you unknowingly purchase something that the seller didn't have the right to sell, you still don't get to keep it. Why not? Because it's not yours! You can sue the person who sold it to you illegal to recover your costs, though.
The B.C. court extended the treatment of the physical property (the book) to the intellectual property (the story) as well. This is consistant with the notion of trade secret law, and shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention.
It's the same sort of ruling you'ld expect. If you don't like the current state of IP laws, go talk to your MP, and vote. It's what I did.
--
AC
there seems to be a scan available for download in everybodies favorite P2P protocol. Added today (12 / 7) into a popular seed site.
I will not provide a link, but most anybody can google for say... I dont know... torrentreactor?
the mirror was the Mirror of Erised (desire) and didn't express the future. . . merely what you wished. Personally I hope Harry dies. That would be hilarious. You can't kill Hermione until the actress playing her is 18 and has found other roles, preferrably in some sort of pr0n.
You better watch out, there may be dogs about . .
because they have to cancel out the 67% markup that they applied when setting the price that allowed them to sell it for a 40% discount and break even
Who do you think generally has the high ground in the battle for supremacy between bookstores and publishers? time was, back before Borders and Barnes and Noble superstores and - especially - Amazon, not to mention the role of Walmart and the like in book distribution, it was the publisher, no question. Bookstores used to get royally screwed by publishers - look at the net book agreement in the UK, which used to prevent bookstores from ever offering a book for sale at a lower price than the publisher required. Now, though, with bookstores consolidated almost completely into the hands of big retail chains, the publisher isn't in such a strong position.
These bookstore chains have one objective in mind - they want to be certain that when a member of the public decides they want to buy a particular book, and walks into their local branch of the chain, they walk out with a copy of that book. They never want to be faced with the possibility of someone coming in, not finding the book, and going down the road, or online to get it instead.
That means they need publishers to overstock them. They require more copies than they will ever sell so that they can guarantee stock in every store (and what's more, they buy them all on sale or return - the publisher is always left holding the unsold stock, hence the remainders trade). And if publishers want to be present on the shelves of B&N or Borders at all, they need to print and distribute enough to fill the shelves of every store in the country - a logistical challenge, since books are bulky, weather-sensitive, and very heavy.
The agreement by the bookstores not to start selling the book until it's reached every store is simply a result of them agreeing with the publisher not to jump the gun provided nobody else does. They require the publisher to enforce the deal, otherwise they'll breach it too.
Even with a book like Harry Potter, remember, the publisher is nowhere if it's not in B&N, Borders and Amazon. In this respect, the bookstores have the publishers over a barrel.
It's independent bookstores and small or specialist publishers that suffer most, of course.
Roll on electronic paper e-books, I say.
You criticized his/her use of the word "racist" with:
1) First, Canadian is not a "race"
Then, you go on to say:
2) Second, making fun of someone based on nationality (which is what you meant) is considered good sport. For example, in your own native Canada, Quebec seems to be stocked with a higher than average amount of asshats.
So, I'd like to offer you a little bit of your own wisdom, pointing out that Quebec is not a nation, and quebecois is not a nationality.
Yes, I agree that "racism" should only be applied to discrimination in regards to race.
tmegapscm
"Don't you mean the ARM? Analog Rights Management?"
All this hashing about Digital vs Whatever Rights Management has been a horrible case of missing the point. It isn't the Digital part that matters. The part that matters is that I paid good money for a book (some "content" in buzz-speak) but other people are telling me when and how I should read it.
That's the point. Stop arguing over the freaking "D".
dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
"I can appreciate a good story, but I appreciate a well-written one more. Harry Potter is a guilty pleasure, like the trashy cyberpunk novels I sometimes read..."
There's a time and a place (in my diet) for fillet steak and another time and place for a hotdog.
Why should reading matter be any different?
T&K.
Political language
"... and on weekends, and holidays, and all throughout May... and you'll always be wrong no matter what you say!" Funny man, that Brian Regan.
I do hope someone puts page scans of the entire book out there ASAP. It would serve them right.
And I wouldn't have felt this way at all if the books had just been put on sale when they arrived at the stories. Maybe I just don't like being teased as in: We have the book, but you can't have it yet.
I guess this is all appropriate for a "children's book" since the publishers are acting like children here!
Interesting how quickly this got clear to the Supreme Court. Glad to know they weren't busy with any important business.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
And the store that got them late sold them to the people who didn't get them from the store that sold out early. Those people still wanted to buy the book.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
However, if nothing is done, it sets a precedent for the strict on sale date being unimportant, and then you've got the fiasco mentioned above, and THAT is why they can't be ignored.
Bullshit. If they let these 15 copies go, it does not mean that anarchy will suddenly break out in book stores worldwide.
The publisher is within their rights to punish the seller, as defined in the distribution agreement and the law, but to say that these 15 copies will render "on-sale" date agreements impotent is simply ludicrous.
first off, dumbledore dies. hermione dates ron, then harry, then ron again. ron tries to fist fight harry. hagrid sits on draco. all the adult wizards make a newer more secret order and don't tell harry. voldemort fights harry's dead parents in some dark realm. the cat gets it on the village outside of the school and has magical kittens. there's also bootlegged spice beer inside hogwarts from the weasley twins who return.
haha. you believed me.
In these days of unnecessary obsessively excessive DRM and fears of ships flying the Jolly Rodger "leak" is such a strong word, too strong to describe this un-news worthy occurrence. This is something that can be explained away by "It's my first day" from a temp worker hired to stand outside the store wielding a torch and pitchfork to hold back the Potter nuts.(if you havn't noticed yet I don't care for the potter)
Selling items is NOT a 'leak' it is an accidental sale before the release date, but that's what the publisher/distributer gets for supplying stores a week for the release date, I think Halo2 was about 3 days.
From my 5min of looking into the 'Real Canadian Superstore' it's not a book store, looks like your average American supermarket, with maybe half an isle of books, and most of the staff probably doesn't know or care about a book's release date. If you've ever worked at one, other than a cashier, you know that they want to go through inventory as quickly as possible.
If the boxes were not clearly labed in big letters "DO NOT OPEN/SELL BEFORE " I dont' see anyone getting fired over it.
F7 doesn't work, ignore spelling and grammar
potter, as far as i know, is a captain berk and the nar-shlip enterrise type of original. i did trip over a new pratchette (disk-world novel) on the little people, one of a triology I'd never heard of, and one not listed in the issues (back page, list of titles) recently. slipping preview. Not alpha or beta version, hopefully.
packrat ; writer-informer. http://packrat.comicgenesis.com http://www.youtube.com/area163 https://www.smashwords.com/
But if desktop fabricators get rolling there will be torrents for all kinds of physical objects.
"It's hard to bargle nawdle zouss
With all these marbles in my mouth"
early sales also mean a contractual obligation is being broken, and if not taken into civil punishment, will still most certainly mean that a retailer will NOT be getting anymore early shipments of upcoming hot releases before the official release date.
Also, it is like the opening weekend of movies, and a reason that the film industry stopped putting blockbusters directly up against each other on an opening weekend... they want to chart as number one in sales.
Although in the book world, this is still a bit of a fib, as bestseller lists are based on presales, that is, wholesaler to retailer orders, not sell through to customer. All to get that coveted "bestseller' label, meaningless beyond the marketing PR cudos. Tons of todays "bestsellers' are tomorrow's remainders.
Canada no longer has law. It has only the interests of powerful businesses, enforced by Business Plan Protection Agencies, otherwise known as 'courts'.
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Valmont: "...I am your father, Harry..."
Harry: "Nooooooo!"
That's pretty severe. I used to work at Target. We always got our new release stuff in easily the weekend before if not earlier and if their was a box that haddn't been rifled through by the time tuesday morning rolled around it'd be the first time.
"Canadian government slams Slashdot editers for misspelling Canadian as 'Canadien'" First post? "And they still can't spell right..."
There's an old saying that says pretty much whatever you want it to.
That store that got them early will sell out quickly, and have to turn customers away (a very bad thing for business, and probably worse then the benefit from selling all those books) and the stores that got them late will be stuck with all the stores that got it early's unsold inventory. Not to mention, as a customer it's really annoying to have to hunt around for the store that has what you want in stock, it's much easier to just know that on x date they will have it.
I have faith it will be delivered this Saturday the 16th, before 1pm. if not, I can wait...
Spoilers? Hard to accidentally come across spoilers, honestly. Someone else in the world owns the book one day before you do? Cry me a river, for heaven's sake. That's just insanity.
The Lone Gunmen are dead.
I agree with your description, but keep in mind the following: You retain the responsibility. You delegate the authority. If your decision to delegate the authority was bad, you'll get thumped for it.
Beyond the el-tee, some of whom actually are fairly actively involved, you're right about officers largely becoming high level decision makers and the NCOs being the implementors (or mid level directors, if you will).
But the point is, if my Pvt does something wrong, his section commander should know about it. If he doesn't, he probably isn't doing his job well enough. If he does, he should deal with it. If he doesn't, then he isn't doing his job well. If I've delegated power to him and trusted him to do the job and he isn't doing it well, that screw up is my fault as the LT along with *my responsibility*.
People often confuse blame and responsibility.
Blame is about saying 'who did X' after the fact. It is used to find witches to burn and to develop harsh lesson 'pour encourager les autres'.
Responsibility is about who has to fix or make right X during the event or stand up and account for why X was not fixed after the event.
In this sense, anything that goes wrong below you, you're responsible for. You have to account for why you didn't deal with it, if it is not dealt with correctly. Sure, you may have delegated the task, but then you have to account for your poor choice of delegate.
Interestingly, in the example in question, the Sergeant and Lieutenant are both *responsible*. The Sergeant is responsible to know what his section staff are doing, and the Lt. is responsible to know what his platoon folks are doing (or that someone who does know what they are doing is trustworthy to act as his proxy). If the ball is dropped, everyone is responsible - the ball dropper, and those who were supposed to see to it he was supervised.
Authority can be delegated, Responsibility cannot (but it can be assigned at multiple layers - not truly shared, but multiplied).
What should never happen, and the original military-example did try to capture this I think, is understand that responsibility should never be assigned without authority. That is, if you are responsible for X, you better have the authority to change X. Now, you can delegate your authority and retain your responsibility, but you should never be given responsibility without authority (and should not take it if someone tries to dump it on you).
-- Mal: "Well they tell you: never hit a man with a closed fist. But it is, on occasion, hilarious."
I'm sure there's a crowd of people eagerly awaiting the return of those customers at the door.
The simple solution to this is steal every copy. Leave no evidence that one copy was taken!
ROT13 is easily cracked, run it twice instead
Why? If people will buy it at 67% markup, why not sell it there?
I am trolling
Seems that there were also 7 books "accedently" sold from a Mac's store in Calgary too.
Technically, the publisher could pull the stolen property card...and send the cops to bust down your door because it wasn't really the store's property to sell yet.. Typically the cops wouldn't press that point, but the publishers do have that legal leg to stand on. Stuff like this falls under contract and trade secret. MS has been getting away with far more restrictive business contracts for years.. anything goes in contract land.
You obviously do not know about Harry Potter. First, while it is stocked in the children's section and said to be a children's book, adults and children alike read this book. Second, Rowling herself has "cub reporters" lined up in Edinburgh to read the book in its entirety this weekend, so these young children will be reading the book in fewer than 2 days time. Third, Rowling also says this is not just a children's book. Fourth, I personally will read this book in its entirety on Saturday, as will most other Harry Potter fans. I know your response was about the profits of the stores, but you are missing the point. Yes Rowling and her team are managing the hype for her book, and kudos to her for that. But the true fans out there have fallen in love with the characters and the story and really do want to know what has happened next. The readers who got those 15 pre-sales, if they kept the books and read them, would know, and we all know how that news would spread, before the rest of the fans had the chance to read it as well. There is NOT much difference except in a few hours time between this book and a Star Wars movie. You can watch the movie in 2-3 hours time, but I guarantee some people will have this 700-page book read in 4-5 hours time; expect reviews by 5am Saturday, easily. And your point about power to the smart people works only in the short term--these stores would no longer be getting the books early. They might profit once, but not again, that is for sure. As above authors have posted, if stores break the deal that benefits them, then publishers will stop playing the game.
why did it had to be dumbledore? Ur so unfair JK.......
On http://darkblaze.mpcdownloads.com/blog/?p=17 I've written an article about it, it's a shame that because of foul management and/or piracy people end up suffering, others economically others in different ways.
Dark Blaze http://darkblaze.mpcdownloads.com/blog/