purported copies of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Scholastic filed suit after purported copies of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" turned up despite extraordinary security measures.



(purport (CLAIM)
verb [+ to infinitive] FORMAL
to pretend to be or to do something, especially in a way that is not easy to believe:
They purport to represent the wishes of the majority of parents at the school.
The study purports to show an increase in the incidence of the disease.
The tape recording purports to be of a conversation between the princess and a secret admirer.

(from Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
━━ n. 意味, 主意, 意図 ((of)).
━━ vt. …と称する, 主張する ((to do)); 意味する, 主意とする.
pur・port・ed・ly　━━ ad. 言われるところによれば.)


Mischief Unmanaged
Carefully Plotted Logistics
To Deliver Final Harry Potter
Fail to Dispel Rash of Leaks

(rash
━━ n. 【医】（単数形で） 発疹(はっしん), 吹出物; （事件などの）多発.
a rash of sth a large number of unpleasant events of the same type:
There has been a rash of robberies/accidents/complaints in the last two months.)

By JEFFREY A. TRACHTENBERG and JOSEPH DE AVILA
July 19, 2007; Page B1

Scholastic Corp. needs Hermione's fabled Time Turner device.

The publisher would dearly love to go back and prevent the premature distribution of as many as 1,200 copies of J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" in the U.S. as well as the apparent leak online of a copy of the book.

Despite extraordinary security measures, purported Potters were turning up all over yesterday. One version allegedly delivered early sold for $250 on eBay. At least one was delivered to a home in Maryland, and the Baltimore Sun posted a brief review of the book online yesterday afternoon, though it didn't explain how it obtained its copy.
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It seemed to be going so well. Over the span of the seven-book series, as the Harry Potter books have exploded in popularity, retailers have grown increasingly sophisticated in getting them into the hands of eager readers not a minute before their release time.

Barnes & Noble Inc., the nation's largest book retailer, for instance, uses an algorithm to help ensure that the more than 500,000 copies it ships out to individual buyers arrive on the appointed day. The retailer received more than 1.3 million pre-orders for the book, but many of those will be picked up at its stores by customers.

Copies of "Deathly Hallows" began arriving at the retailer's two major warehouses several weeks ago. There, they are separated by zip code and shipped out using a complex mathematical formula to compute exactly how long it takes to deliver a book to a specific neighborhood. "We have all this built in to our system," says Marie J. Toulantis, CEO of Barnes&Noble.com. "We know, depending on the shipper and zip code, exactly how long it will take to get the book to a customer's home on time."

But such clockwork accuracy appears to be lacking at some other companies.

The Baltimore Sun reported yesterday that a man in Maryland had received a copy early from online retailer DeepDiscount.com, mailed from the retailer's warehouses in Chicago. Rob Broggi, director of merchandising at DeepDiscount.com, described the event to the Sun as a "freak accident" and said the matter was being investigated. (Baltimore Sun's site)
[Harry Potter featured on the Baltimore Sun site]
Harry Potter featured on the Baltimore Sun site

Scholastic believes that DeepDiscount.com and its supplier, Chas. Levy Co.'s Levy Home Entertainment distribution arm, violated their contractual obligations to ensure that "Deathly Hallows" went on sale no sooner than one minute after midnight on Saturday. In a suit filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Ill., Scholastic alleged that Infinity Resources Inc., doing business as DeepDiscount.com, shipped "Deathly Hallows" as much as a week "before the contractually permitted shipping date." (Text of the suit)

This could explain how some readers are getting early copies. Despite its security efforts, Scholastic lost control during the virtual last leg of the process -- the distance between retailer and consumer.

"This isn't just one copy that got out by accident," says Kyle Good, a spokeswoman for Scholastic, which estimated that the number of copies shipped is around "one one-hundredth of one percent" of the total U.S. copies. Ms. Good added that the number could be considerably less. (Text of Scholastic's statement)

"We're asking for damages but can't yet quantify them," says Lisa Holton, president of Scholastic Trade and Book Fairs.

Neither Levy Home Entertainment nor DeepDiscount.com would comment.

As for the book auctioned on eBay, Kim Ruby, a spokeswoman for eBay Inc., said that "this transaction abided by the policies at eBay," but they were looking into it further. Ms. Ruby added that "there is no way for us to verify," whether the book is real or not.

Many fans are upset. Melissa Anelli, who owns The Leaky Cauldron, a popular Harry Potter Web site (www.the-leaky-cauldron.org), said that her site is being flooded with emails from concerned readers. "I can't believe the intensity of some people's desire to ruin it for other people," she says.
[book]
Amazon.com employees pack copies of 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'; inset, a close-up of the writing on the book boxes from Scholastic

Book sellers were instructed by Scholastic to keep tight-lipped about the logistics of shipping the highly coveted book. Kim Sutton, the brand-marketing coordinator with Powell's Books, an independent bookstore and online retailer based in Portland, Ore., said that her company can't even disclose where the books are warehoused. "People might know where the books are and access them and leak them," she said.

Scholastic offered Powell's Books two options for shipping the book -- either agree to use FedEx Corp. to distribute the books in time for the Saturday release, or wait and use any carrier they chose to deliver the book after the release date. The latter option would have meant that some of Powell's customers wouldn't be able to get a copy until a week after its release date. Powell's agreed to let FedEx handle the shipping. "FedEx is ultimately responsible for the routing of the books so that they arrive on the exact day," Ms. Sutton said.

Carla Boyd, a spokeswoman for FedEx, wouldn't confirm the company's agreement with Powell's and Scholastic, saying that the company doesn't comment on their business partners' practices. The company's FedEx Freight unit expects to deliver 2.7 million books to bookstores across the country. Ms. Boyd said the company is using a variety of safeguards to ensure that the books aren't stolen or shipped ahead of Saturday's release, including placing the books in unmarked boxes, using cameras to record the books, and having an internal security force that accompanies the books every step of the way.

Those familiar with the direct-mail business weren't shocked that some customers have gotten early copies, but said some would be upset. "This is a big oops," says Denny Hatch, who writes an enewsletter called BusinessCommonSense.com. John Schulte, president of Minneapolis-based National Mail Order Association, a professional organization of people involved in direct marketing, says mistakes happen. "Everything is run by humans, and if somebody typed in the wrong ship date, then you have a problem," he says.

Even the author seems unhappy. In a posting yesterday on her Web site, jkrowling.com, Ms. Rowling wrote: "We are almost there! As launch night looms, let's all, please, ignore the misinformation popping up on the web and in the press on the plot of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I'd like to ask everyone who calls themselves a Potter fan to help preserve the secrecy of the plot for all those who are looking forward to reading the book at the same time on publication day. In a very short time you will know EVERYTHING!"

Meanwhile, Scholastic continued to "actively pursue the people involved" in placing what are purported to be photographed pages of the book online. In a sign that any publicity may be good publicity, Ms. Good said that "several said their reservations for their Harry Potter parties are spiking, and they are concerned about having enough books."

Write to Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg at jeffrey.trachtenberg@wsj.com and Joseph De Avila at joseph.deavila@wsj.com