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."
This stuff is starting to get ridiculous. It's a book FFS, not an issue of national security!
So "Real Canadian Superstore" (CBC article) is the same as "Great Canadien Superstore" (/. submission)? No, really. I'm not being sarcastic. I'm curious.
What the hell is wrong with you all? Harry Potter is a fag . . . oh wait a minute - nevermind.
Don't you mean the ARM? Analog Rights Management? Harry Potter isn't going to be released as an ebook.
I got my Linux laptop at System76.
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?
Very well said. That first paragraph you quoted caught my attention too. I guess it isn't just American courts who care more about corporate rights (see last weeks eminent domain decision) than anything else.
San Francisco Photographers
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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. I think that a court telling me what I can and cannot read is unconstitutional in the U.S. If I legally purchased the book it is my property to do with what I want to do. If I want to read it I can. If I want to scan it into a computer I can. If I want to spread it to the rest of the world I can wait a minute I can't. Shit then Never Mind this is Rosanna Danna signing off.
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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.
The court instructed "... anyone who has directly or indirectly received a copy or any other form of disclosure of Harry Potter 6 from John/Jane Does to deliver to the plaintiff Raincoast Books Distribution Ltd. forthwith any and all copies of Harry Potter 6 in their possession ..."
So the BC Supreme Court seizes private property now, just because the seller wants it back? Three words for that:
Ha!
Ha!
Ha!
It will be interesting to see how far they are willing to go to enforce this decree. If I had one of those copies I'd take it camping with me and come back on the 16th and claim ignorance. What a RIDICULOUS waste of the taxpayers' money!
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.
If I had one of those copies I'd take it camping with me and come back on the 16th and claim ignorance.
Bah, I would skip camping and go straight for ignorance.
[Judge] Where is the book?
[Mel] That book I legally purchased in a bookstore? Uh, I must've put it somewhere... Last time I remember reading it, I was on a can.
Case adjourned.
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.
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"
I don't think Raincoat or Rowling has much concern about some individual fan reading the book couple of days early. But the injunction will help in preventing media getting hold of a copy and printing spoilers all over the place.
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.)
Regardless of whether or not this was done on purpose, the publishers are going to milk this as long as they can. They are the publishers after all. That means that it is their profession to make as much money as they can on books. This book, although having amazing presale numbers, has had a lot of its marketing power stolen by the recent bombings in London. Such a tragic event has taken away any idle news coverage which would have instead been directed at Harry Potter. The people in charge of marketing are doing whatever they can do get the public's attention back on the books.
Its pretty simple psychology they are using. Humans desire that which cannot be had, and if this book is being protected by the CIA, FBI, and Mafia, then it must be the greatest book ever.
Oh and I'll be @ my local barnes and noble 10 pm friday night waiting in line, and then will have a contest with a few friends to see who can finish it first. No joke. People who make fun of the books as childish simply cannot appreciate a simple fun story
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.
Oh yes it is. My guess is within 24 hours of the official release.
One wonders why these publishing houses don't sell their own e-book at a reasonable price and soak up most of the demand for the 'unofficial' copy.
I believe the post you're replying to was a joke pointing out that calling it DRM is indeed a silly idea, as well as making fun of the Slashdot post that did so.
It IS ALWAYS management's fault, that's what they're for, to be responsible for fuckups. That's why they get paid more and why they get to sit around on their fat lazy arse all day long..
They get given some work to do, delegate the work to a lower level employee, supervise them as much as required. If they lower-level employee fucks it up then it's the managers fault for not supervising enough/giving it to the wrong person/not supplying training/employing an idiot/etc/etc/etc
So shut up.
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
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.
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.
Sure. Then you can ebay the book plate for a lot of money, then BUY sex.
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?
Of course I'd return my copy for a signed bookplate in a heartbeat.
I'd try to trade mine for sex first, and if that didn't pan out, I'd take the bookplate.
Before doing that, I'd think about what kind of girls are into Harry Potter if I were you...i ate crayons when i was a kid and now i have two braincells and the blue ones taste nicer
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.
What's the big deal. It's not like the big secret of Albus Dumbledore actually being the future version of Harry Potter will be revealed in this book. We'll have to wait for the next one.
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
That's assuming that the book store owned the books that they sold. The publisher could have written a contract that said that they owned the books until the official retail distribution date, at which point ownership transfers to the retailer.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
I learned from the **AA and SCO
You don't buy a book, you buy the permission to read it.
[;-)]
"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.
Sorry but that doesn't change the fact that the current book buyers bought the books in good faith. They rendered payment and recieved the goods. The relationship between the book store and the distributor has no effect on the transaction. Let's take a hypothetical.
Book Seller A goes bankrupt. The distributor is owed hundred of thousands of dollars. Can they go after the customers? No. Because the customers acted in good faith and purchased the items.
Read the Uniform Commercial Code to understand what constitutes a sale.
Thalasar
I don't know if that's how it works in the US military, but in the Canadian army (to which I'm part of) it goes something like this:
Pte Bloggins lies to cover up for this buddy
Pte Bloggins is found out and gets reamed
An investigation is done to determine how far up the chain responsibility goes.
e.g. The immediate supervisor for a Pte is either a MCpl or a Sgt. Therefore, it is likely that they will get reamed far worse than the Lt who only supervises the Sgts. If it is found that both the Sgt and Lt were in on this, then everyone gets reamed with the Senior NCO and the Officer getting worse punishment (because they should have known better).
AUTHORITY and RESPONSIBILITY are two different things. You can always delegate your AUTHORITY, but never your RESPONSIBILITY. You AUTHORIZE the subordinates that you trust to carry out their orders in accordance with your intent. In that you are giving them your authority. But you are ultimately REPSONSIBLE for the outcome.
Keep in mind that the section commander (usually a Sgt in infantry units) are the ones that manage the most people (8 - 10 troops per section). The Pl commander (usually a Lt) should not and does not actively get involved in the managing of Ptes unless there is no Senior NCO around or something is going incredibly wrong. At that point, he may decide to step in, but usually he will either approach the Section Commander or the Sergeant Major and tell them that things are not happening correctly and let them sort it out.
Offficers are the planners and policy makers. They make the high-level decision. Senior NCOs are the whip, they get the job done. How it gets done is usually left to them, they should be able to do the job given only broad directions (hence the importance of being able to ascertain your commander's intent).
"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