Harry Potter's 'Half Blood Prince' Leaked 784
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."
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:More Questions then Answers (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:More Questions then Answers (Score:5, Funny)
WOW.
That took my breath away.
Re:More Questions then Answers (Score:5, Funny)
Re:More Questions then Answers (Score:5, Funny)
Tut Tut - I thought everybody knew
I before E except after C
Re:More Questions then Answers (Score:5, Insightful)
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
Re:More Questions then Answers (Score:3, Interesting)
At the moment I'd very much recommend China Mièville (sp?). Fantasy races, but a dark, industrial, almost post-apocalyptic setting. Very very good.
Why be guilty? (Score:3, Insightful)
"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.
Mr. Cruise? Is that you? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:More Questions then Answers (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:More Questions then Answers (Score:3, Insightful)
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 tho
Re:More Questions then Answers (Score:3, Insightful)
Everthing I learned in life (Score:4, Insightful)
You don't buy a book, you buy the permission to read it.
[;-)]
Re:More Questions then Answers (Score:5, Funny)
I'd try to trade mine for sex first, and if that didn't pan out, I'd take the bookplate.
Re:More Questions then Answers (Score:3, Funny)
Re:More Questions then Answers (Score:3, Insightful)
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...Re:More Questions then Answers (Score:3, Funny)
Re:More Questions then Answers (Score:5, Interesting)
If someone really wanted to, they could give the book to a friend in the US where they're free to publish all the plot details. Let's see the BC Supreme Court enforce its rights-bashing injunction on a US citizen.
Of course, I probably wouldn't do that myself -- the legal bills would be quite hefty and I wouldn't relish the ensuing hassle. Plus selling that signed copy and t-shirt on eBay would net a small fortune!
Re:More Questions then Answers (Score:5, Funny)
My review:
Something evil threatens Harry. His friends tag along for the adventure. Malfoy is an asshat. Dumbledore says some words of wisdom. Hagrid gets into some form of trouble but comes good in the end. Ron just about cocks up every spell he trys. Hermione is a swat (but kinda cute). Someone tangles with a mythical beast. It's a fight to the death but Harry and his friends come good in the end - oh and someone is not who they seem to be
Either that or they all go on a nice picnic and the lemonade is especially agreeable.
Re:More Questions then Answers (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:More Questions then Answers (Score:3, Informative)
Re:More Questions then Answers (Score:3, Informative)
Also, he was nothing like the red shirts in Star Trek that you don't even know the name of or any character at all...just a guy to stand there and get zapped.
Re:More Questions then Answers (Score:3, Informative)
Re:More Questions then Answers (Score:3, Funny)
Dear Hogwarts Forum,
Wow! I didn't think these letters were real until I was polishing my broomstick one day and Hermione walked in
At least down here (Score:5, Insightful)
All of this shit just because Hermione finally dies in this book.
Grammar Nazi (Score:5, Funny)
Re:More Questions then Answers (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Management responsibility (Score:3, Insightful)
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 corre
Re:Management responsibility (Score:4, Insightful)
2. "...used to have a culture where management never took the heat for anything..." - I submit that we still do largely have this culture, especially in the middle and upper management (not so much as team leaders and the like). CEOs can pile-drive their company or rape it for good looking financial markets and bad long term value and then what do they get? A nice big multi-million dollar severance cheque. Not exactly sure why you figure this is 'used to' versus 'currently'?
You should never accept responsibility (which means you *should* be called to account in the event of a bad outcome) if you don't have the power to go with it, to control and influence the situation sufficient to give you every opportunity to avoid the bad outcome. Because then, if it happens, either you were lazy, had bad judgement, or otherwise failed to take appropriate steps.
I agree you shouldn't hold powerless people to account for things they could not know nor could not control. Yet at the same time, when I hear Gagliano up in front of the public saying he couldn't reasonably have known about the millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars being illegally spent in his department, when he *is* SUPPOSED to be the RESPONSIBLE person, I can't help but say 'why did you take the job under those circumstances?'. Crown Ministers, CEOs, etc. should never accept a slot that assigns them more responsibility than power to change things and direct them - responsibility should be exactly commensurate with your ability to control things. Where you haven't got that control, you shouldn't accept the responsibility. The fact that you do so should not mean you are immune to consequences - maybe you'll know better next time!
At the same time, manager who try to foist responsibility for deadlines, etc. off onto their employees who had nothing to do with creating the timelines, should not reasonably expect the employees to accept that responsibility. If the company management had actually wanted buy-in and acceptance of responsibility (you can't, in my view, be forced into responsibility - you must accept it willingly), they would have involved those who they wished to make responsible in the decision making process.
It is just this confusion about responsibility (and the attempt to disclaim it or assign it without commensurate powers) that has led to the nightmares in the private and public sector which we see grace the evening news of late.
Re:Management responsibility (Score:3, Insightful)
Do you really, honestly believe that an employee in a book store sold these books by accident, and that their management hadn't told them about the release date? I know a couple of people who work in bookstores here, and they've had the release conditions drilled into them for months already.
I find the idea that a guy with access to the "secure" storage took a bit of e
Re:Management responsibility (Score:3, Interesting)
The Slashdot summary, with its delightful spelling innovations, asserts that the books were sold from a Real Canadian Superstore [superstore.ca], which is a giant Loblaws [loblaws.ca] with Wal*Martian asperations.
If that's true, then the person stocking the bookshelves had probably just finished stocking the cookies and crackers aisle: a mistake is plausible.
So much for the DRM (Score:3, Funny)
Re:So much for the DRM (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:So much for the DRM (Score:5, Funny)
Re:So much for the DRM (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:So much for the DRM (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Scholastic has nothing to do with it (Score:3, Funny)
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 [wikipedia.org], and cha
Stupidity (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Stupidity (Score:2)
Yep, agreed. I know of folks who had the last book Fedex'ed to them Saturday morning (it was released Fri night at midnight), and then proceeded to spend the *entire* weekend reading the book. Why? Just in case anyone talked about it on Monday morning at work. *sigh*
It was months before I read the book; I didn't find out a thing before I read it either. Yeah, yeah, I read Harry Potter. ;-)
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Spoilers! (Score:5, Informative)
Injunctions (liminares) (Score:3, Informative)
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
Re:Spoilers! (Score:4, Insightful)
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 [slashdot.org], but come on. Nothing described there was magic.
Re:Spoilers! (Score:3, Insightful)
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.)
Re:Stupidity (Score:5, Insightful)
But please don't let me get in the way of any cultist fanatics or anything.
Follow much? Thin the herd!
Re:Stupidity (Score:3, Interesting)
Here's the problem: Define "few"
The concept of the universal release date is there to protect the small vendors indirectly and the publishers directly. Right now, the publisher has exclusive rights to the book and, if you want to sell the book, you have to come to them. This way the publisher has the ability to not only name the terms of the sale, but also to ensure the widest distribution
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What are you talking about? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
I'd be seriously tempted... (Score:5, Funny)
Using ROT13 encoding.
Somebody at GameFAQs claims to have it. (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Re:Somebody at GameFAQs claims to have it. (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Real Canadian Superstore? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Real Canadian Superstore? (Score:3, Informative)
Frostbitten laws (Score:5, Funny)
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!)
Re:Frostbitten laws (Score:3, Funny)
On this side, the most you could hope for is they let you keep your pants when they ship you off to Gitmo...
Re:Frostbitten laws (Score:3, Interesting)
The way they always miss the memo.
Honest to god that's the first new newfie joke I've heard in 10 years, it's so wrong, oh I know it's so wrong to make those jokes (thank you public school), but that one (spelling included) made me laugh.
As a side note Newfoundland didn't join confederation til sometime around 1949. They fought in world war 2 as their own nation; mostly; they had fallen on hard times in the 30's and the British
Whatever will we do? (Score:5, Funny)
The Stolen Text (Score:5, Funny)
Hermione grows up. [veritaserum.com]
Re:The Stolen Text (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Um... (Score:5, Insightful)
Am I missing something, or does that seem even more retarded than something our court systems would do?
Blake
Not that retarded... (Score:4, Informative)
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
Re:It's actually more stupid than that... (Score:5, Informative)
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
Re:Um... (Score:3, Interesting)
Technically, nobody purchased those books. A sale only takes place if all parties involved intend for a sale to take place, and this was clearly a mistake on the part of the store in question.
Re:Um... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Um... (Score:5, Interesting)
It's a stretch, but by breaching the contract, it could be argued the store sold "stolen" goods. The consumer then would have no right to such goods even if purchased in good faith. The publisher can require the book to be returned, or at least have a temporary injunction issued until the legal status of the books can be determined.
Of course there is absolutely no argument for the courts to prevent somebody from talking about the book. I'm a believer in copyrights, but there are limits when it comes to restricting free speech. The court should not be in a position of prior restriant. At best the publisher can sue for libel later on and have the burden of proof to show that the person's words had a quantifiable and unfounded (almost impossible to prove) impact on sales.
Re:Um... (Score:3, Informative)
That's a difference between US and Canadian courts. Canadian courts have no concerns about imposing publication bans -- most obviously, while US courts hold preliminary criminal hearings in secret in order to avoid tainting the jury pool, Canadian courts allow the public into those hearings but impose a ban on publication of the details.
We just do things a bit differently on this side of the border, that's all.
Re:Um... (Score:3, Insightful)
IANAL, but nobody can - at least in the U.S. - if the buyer completed the transaction in good faith (e.g. didn't steal it or purchased a book that he/she knew in advance was stolen). It's all in the UCC [cornell.edu]. However, I don't know if Canada has a similar law.
No. (Score:3, Informative)
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) [cornell.edu], but typically the provisions apply to part
Re:Um... (Score:3, Insightful)
It's the book store's fuck up, not the book buyers.( Unless they bribed one of those underpaid clerks)
how did this happen? (Score:5, Insightful)
Good Lord, Have Mercy... (Score:5, Insightful)
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?
Re:Good Lord, Have Mercy... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Good Lord, Have Mercy... (Score:3, Funny)
Certainly puts a different spin on the topic title of "Harry Potter's 'Half Blood Prince' Leaked".
so... (Score:3, Funny)
Can't ... help myself... must make obvious joke (Score:5, Funny)
Which explains why he had only half his blood....
Yes, yes I'll be here all week...
Re:Can't ... help myself... must make obvious joke (Score:5, Funny)
You misspelled "I'll get my coat"
At least (Score:5, Funny)
I have the book in possesion (Score:5, Informative)
Re:I have the book in possesion (Score:3, Funny)
1. Invent story set in boarding school environment
2. Rehash story for each school year
3. ???
4. Profit!
Oooh (Score:3, Funny)
Disturbing Much (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
To bad.. (Score:5, Funny)
Harry Potter Good (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Harry Potter Good (Score:3, Insightful)
Just because something is popular, doesn't necessarily mean it sucks.
It took me many years to learn that lesson. My favorite saying in response to something being deemed "popular" or widely acclaimed was "Yeah, and the Big Mac is the best selling meal in America."
Add to that: (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Market Magic (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Spoiler... (Score:3, Funny)
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.
Publicity Stunt (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Harry Potter on bit Torrent (Score:3, Funny)
Inconceivable... (Score:3, Insightful)
injunction? (Score:5, Insightful)
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?)
Re:injunction? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:injunction? (Score:3, Insightful)
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 [cornell.edu] to understand what con
Where is the Outrage? (Score:3, Insightful)
Just like in Jurassic Park... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:How much money did they waste on the "DRM"? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Download the ebook (Score:3, Informative)
"just"? drrr...
Re:Prior restraint: antithetical to the 1st amendm (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:No Books For You! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Here are the 32 Chapter titles (Score:5, Funny)
1. Pupkins and the Warblesnarker
2. Pupkins meets his DOOOM!
3. Pupkins and the snupkins
3. Harry meets Pupkins
4. Pupkins meets his DOOOM! revisited
5. Harry meets his DOOOM!
6. Hermione meets Harry's DOOOM!
7. Hagrid gets Sloshed
8. Hagrid meets his parents
9. Hagrid meets his DOOOM!
10. Pupkins strikes back
11. Flubugern drives the hollyhock
12. Herk smacks Hagrid with a fish
13. The Verisimilator
14. The lint remover
15. Hagrid beats Harry with a smock
16. Hagrid apologizes in the nude
17. Harry kisses Hagrid accidentally
18. Frumpalorn engorges Dundathor with an Archaeopteryx
19. Bimballon disgorges an Apteryx into Harry's Christmas stocking
20. No More Wimbledoots!
21. The Wozzlies get Trashed
22. Harry and the evil menace of badness and evil
23. Harry and the evilorn menacorn of baddnessalorn
24. Death to the smilies
25. Reflective Slapping Contest
26. Tournament of the Snail Lord
27. The Final Finality of DOOOM!
28. Pupkins gets beaten with a tire iron
29. Hermione gets sloshed
30. Froophthet and Znoosed
31. Harry goes on the rampage
32. Happy Iron Kettle and the Twisted Wrench