It turns out that a bookstore located in Coquitlam, British Columbia accidentally sold 14 copies of the new J.K. Rowling book, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince ahead of the official release date of July 16…
The Supreme Court of British Columbia has since issued a ruling that those who received early copies of the books are not allowed to sell them, tell anybody else what is in them, publicly display them, or read them. Yeah you heard that last bit right–if you managed to get your hands on the latest Harry Potter book before July 16, it's against the law for you to read it–at least in British Columbia anyway.
From the Times Online article Reading ban on leaked Harry Potter:
…J. K. Rowling's legal advisers said that the author was entitled to prevent buyers from reading their own books even though they had not broken the law.
“The fact is that this is property that should not have been in their possession,” said Neil Blair, a legal specialist for Christopher Little, the author's literary agent…
…Korieh Duodu, a media lawyer for David Price Solicitors and Advocates, said: “I have never heard of such a wide-ranging order. One sympathises with the reader from a non-legal point of view, but property rights often trump civil liberties. There is no human right to read.”…
…The injunction is similar to a court order imposed in England and Wales after two men from Kettering, Northamptonshire, allegedly stole a copy from a warehouse and attempted to sell details to The Sun newspaper. The order states that anyone who discloses names of new characters or plot details will be in contempt of court. It applies even to books acquired in good faith…
I guess if you managed to somehow already obtain and read this book, you better not mention anything about it, or the dementors will be swarming in on you faster than you can say expecto patronum!
Anyway, we're pretty excited in my family about the upcoming book. You can bet I'll be at the bookstore on 7/16 to get our copy. Harry rules! Are you getting psyched yet?
I don't know what they're going to do for the coming movies… the kids are growing up… Emma Watson is already 15 years old… at two years per film they're either going to have to skip a book or get new actors… or try very hard to make Rupert, Emma, and Daniel look a whole lot younger than they are.
Apparently Goblet of Fire is in post-production, and Order of the Phoenix is in pre-production (due out in 2007). Anyway that's a worry for another day… I'm just excited that I'll be finally getting my hands on a new Potter book! Friday can't come soon enough! 
Chuck,
One of my customers is a printing house in Taunton that is printing the book as we speak. The boxes of books are all wrapped in kraft paper and say “Do not open until July 16th” on them. The place has added security to keep employees from stealing the books and putting them on eBay. Also, they have had to purchase special locks for the tractor trailers full of books in their lot to prevent people from actually stealing the trailer! This actually happened in England not too long ago I was told…
Tom
Come midnight on Friday I'll be blazing a path through the costumed teenagers at the corner toy store to grab my copy of Half Blood Prince. I was a bit underwhelmed by Order of the Phoenix but I'm enjoying the series.
Our copy should be in the air in a few hours (a copy of the British edition was part of Patti's birthday present). Too bad they can't send them by owl
.
Did you all see the new pope's innane comments on the evils of Harry? I haven't checked out the actual comments yet just some of the reaction but geeze doesn't this guy have better things to worry about (Maybe he and Rick Santorum should get together, you should check out his comments too, apparently the liberals up here in MA are the cause of all the child abusing priests).
B.O.B.
I have a friend whose next-door neighbors home school their children for religious reasons. I don't actually know what religion they are because when I asked I didn't get an answer. But the children aren't allowed to watch the Harry Potter movies because of the witchcraft. They are allowed to watch LOTR, however. So witchcraft is bad, but violence and wizardry, not so bad.
Maya is having her birthday party at Barnes and Noble tomorrow night. They are having a big HPatHBP party. If she can last til midnight, we'll get our preordered copy. If not, I'll have to go back on Saturday.
I've read a couple of other cases of books “accidentally” being sold early. Perhaps it is my skeptical nature, but I have a hard time believing that anyone responsible for selling books doesn't know when these are allowed to be out.
They put out the books, get a little free publicity for the store, and then recover the books.
At least Rowling's publisher is trying to make it up to the early buyers. Anyone who returns the book they bought wll get it returned to them on aturday and will get an HP gift pack for their trouble.
We still aren't through with Order of the Phoenix. Used to be I would read the book on my own, then read it to the girls. But I didn't do that with the last one and they don't have much time at night during the school year for reading to anymore.
But maybe we can fix that and squeeze some in.
Heh. I finished Order shortly after it came out, but have been rereading it with Maya. We are almost finished. ~35 pages to go. Hopefully, we will get it done before tomorrow.