Chances of "Carpet Leak" beaing real? Getting closer to a 100% with each minute NO SPOILERS

[dangermousie]

Statement from Scholastic
Wednesday July 18, 2:00 pm ET

NEW YORK, July 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Scholastic has recently learned that some individuals have received copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows through the mail, beginning on Tuesday, July 17th, as a result of a breach of the on-sale agreement by the distributor, Levy Home Entertainment, and shipments made by DeepDiscount.com, a customer of that distributor. We are taking immediate legal action against DeepDiscount.com and Levy Home Entertainment. The number of copies shipped is around one one-hundredth of one percent of the total U.S. copies to go on sale at 12:01 am on July 21st.

We are also making a direct appeal to the Harry Potter fans who bought their books from DeepDiscount.com and may receive copies early requesting that they keep the packages hidden until midnight on July 21st.

Scholastic is especially grateful to the other retailers and distributors for their careful attention to keeping the books secure until the release time and for planning thousands of spectacular midnight parties where fans will celebrate together. And we ask everyone, especially the media, to preserve the fun and excitement for fans everywhere.

The fans themselves have made it abundantly clear that they are looking forward to going to the midnight parties, receiving their very own copy of the book and finally getting to read the book they have so anxiously awaited.

(copied from http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/070718/nyw098.html?.v=101)

Please don't post spoilers in the comments, for those on my flist who are spoilerphobes. Thank you

Comments

[ilanala]

It's such a tiny percentage of the total sales, but I wonder if they realize that there's no way to keep something like that from spreading over the internet...

Then again, I wonder if they realize that the fans who would go to midnight parties and preorder copies months ahead of time will do that whether there are leaked copies ahead of time or not, and most will be careful about spoiling the story for other people too.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I mean, the leaked copies are hard to find, barely legible etc. Only hardcore potter fans will want to read them and those will go buy books anyway.

I never understood the crazy secrecy to be honest. How is knowing stuff going to deter sales? If people are so dependent on 'spoiler a/b/c' why would they buy a book just to find out who died or kissed or what? Then they'd just flip through it in a bookstore.

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

OK, I don't get why they care whether people READ the book before Saturday as long as they promise to keep their mouths shut about what's in it ... Why do they have to keep the packages hidden? How bizzare!

[greycoupon.livejournal.com]

I liked that part! Is Harry.... Santa Claus?

[lydzi.livejournal.com]

Well everyone isn't as nice. If you have some persons who goes and spoil the pleasure of others, it is unfair. For someone who actually understands what keeping a secret is, all fine. But for someone who will have some extra pleasure to go at midnight at the Waterstone and shout something like "Dumbledore is dead Snape killed him"... like hell. We've seen that for the two previous books and I don't think I would react pretty if it happens now for the last one.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but it would happen anyway even if the book was sealed, as of 12:01. Some person could still do it then.

[lydzi.livejournal.com]

Less chance to happen.
More than that, it's bad for the business. I know it may sound silly for lots of people, but I work in a bookshop and If someone sells a very awaited book before you (it happens), it pwns you like hell. Not necessarly for this book but for the next one, people will go and buy it where they could have it before. That's disloyal. We have dates. We have rules and it's made for a purpose. You receive the books, you can read it of course, no one cares for that but you don't sell it and you don't dispatch it. Imagine if every bookshop would do that o_O.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

But, with the exception for Potter, do people really get so antsy for releases?

I am not saying that what DDDVD did was right, it's just the huge fuss over it is a little ott, IMO.

[lydzi.livejournal.com]

Well clearly with Potter everything is bigger ^^. But we had the same case here with the last book of Grange (he's big french writer - Thriller type-). We all received it something like two days before the offical release date and bam! Fnac (it's a big company) saled it as soon as they had it which pwned us hard :/.

I can understand the people who buy the books earlier. I would do the same. I can't understand the booksellers who don't respect the timing, honestly that's all. Harry Potter or something smaller, it doesn't matter ^^. The point is still the same as far as I'm concerned and Scholastic has all the right to send the lawyers against Discountwhatever ^^.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

That makes perfect sense.

I agree they have the right to send lawyers after dddvd. Asking people not to read it if they got it by mistake is a bit odd though :)

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

But that's EXACTLY what I'm saying - I would think that Scholastic cares if you read and spoil the ending for other people, so they would be providing incentives not to tell what happens, rather than trying to get you to "hide your package" and not read the book. How can they possibly try to control whether you read something you have in your house?

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Exactly. So weird. Maybe it's because I read a lot of non-fiction, where you know what happens anyway (OMG! Charles I got beheaded!), I don't get the huge fuss anyway.

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't personally want to be spoiled, so I get that people don't want that. But it seems absurd to try to get people not to read the book - maybe the efforts should be focused on saying "hey, we understand you got this early; please don't tell other people what happens, OK?"

(I mean, I also don't understand the people who gleefully spoil other people on purpose, ya know? That seems a bit weird to me as well!! Your own use of cut-tags is VERY much appreciated!)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Asking people not to spoil is common sense. But to ask people not to read if they have gotten it, legitimately, like dddvd customers have? That's nuts.

P.S.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Your icon has inspired MAJOR bookish urges :)

Re: P.S.

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

Hee! Well, yeah, Sean Bean reading Yeats = awesome!

[greycoupon.livejournal.com]

Ha! I order all my season sets from DeepDiscountDVD.com as they ALWAYS ship early. I got one of my BSG season sets 7 days before the street date.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

*notes for future reference*

[ewanspotter.livejournal.com]

Keep the packages hidden until midnight on July 21st? BAHAHAH! RIGGGGGGGGGGGGGHT.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Delusional. :)