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."
Page 31 of that thread: "he admitted to lying."
I'll take the word of someone who is saying someone is a liar over the word of someone who is saying they are telling the truth.
For the record, you're all liars.
Free of Flash! Free of Flash!
...let us say I (A) have an unpublished work, and someone (B) gets hold of a copy of my work, then sells it to a third party (C). While C might have acted in good faith, A can still use the courts to make sure his unpublished work isn't de facto published without consent.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does not have authorization to sell it until the release date, and so the book is in legal terms still considered unpublished. Unpublished works have great protection in copyright law, as they should have.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
This comment contained copyrighted text and was removed at the request of the copyright owner under the terms of the DMCA.
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.
2005-07-10 18:11:02 Torrent 169452 (Harry Potter - The Half-Blood Prince (pdf)) was deleted by stryfe19 (Nuked: not the real book, states in decription it is)
"just"? drrr...
You can download the .mov file without requiring the browser plugin from :i es/harry_potter_SNL1.mov
http://www.kontrabandcontent.co.uk/1/graphics/mov
I tried firefox, but that didn't start downloading, so I tried "net transport" and that started downloading it fine. It's 11MB.
You may want to check your own law. A work is not considered published until it has been published in some form. That it has been printed with the intent to publish is not sufficient. You may also want to read Harper & Row Publishers, Inc. v. The Nation Enters for a ruling by the Supreme court where the Nation obtained a printed copy of Ford's memoairs before release, much like this case.
You may note that a) it is considered unpublished, despite having changed hands because it was not officially published and b) the Supreme courts holds that the "right of first publication" counts extremely strongly against fair use. That means that the people who have recieved the book have no right to quote even small bits. The Nation used 300 to 400 words. So I wouldn't be so cocky if I were you.
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings