Scholastic to go after early birds

The Baltimore Sun

Scholastic Corp., the distributor of the Harry Potter books in the United States, said yesterday that it will take legal action against two Illinois companies that sold and shipped copies of the final novel in the series to some customers several days before the book's scheduled worldwide release date.

Scholastic, based in New York, said in a prepared statement that Chicago-based book distributor Levy Home Entertainment and seller DeepDiscount.com in Itasca, Ill., violated an agreement to hold back copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows until 12:01 a.m. Saturday.

It is unclear exactly how many books were shipped early. Scholastic said it believes the number is "around one one-hundredth of 1 percent of the total U.S. copies" but declined to be more specific. Based on earlier reports of 12 million copies scheduled for sale in the United States, about 1,200 copies may have circulated early.

DeepDiscount spokesman Andrew Moscrip said yesterday, "Obviously, we take the matter extremely seriously, and we're going to investigate."

An operator answering the Levy main phone line said the company declined to comment.

Scholastic's announcement followed an article in The Sun yesterday about a Davidsonville man who received a copy of the new Potter book from DeepDiscount in the mail Tuesday.

dan.thanh.dang@baltsun.com

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