Scholastic vs. Amazon

[Belinda Holbrook <holbrook@REVEALED.NET>]

     It appears that Scholastic is winning in its efforts to keep the
originally-published-in-England Harry Potter books out of the United
States. The first and second Harry Potter books, (Harry Potter and the
Philosopher's Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets) by
Rowling are available in England in hardcover and paperback. Scholastic
purchased the rights for the first book (renamed Harry Potter and the
Sorcerer's Stone) in the United States and it came out last fall. The
second book was scheduled to be released in the U.S. next fall. However,
Scholastic found out that savvy shoppers were obtaining the second book
directly from England. So they moved up the release day to June and also
asked that booksellers not sell the English editions in the United
States. I understood that Amazon.co.uk was not sure whether the internet
sales were covered by U.S. copyright and said they would continue to sell
the books to U.S. customers. I guess that is no longer true.
     Sunday I ordered three paperback copies of each book. Today I got a
message from Amazon.co.uk stating that:

Unfortunately, the purchase by you of more than one copy of the title
"Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" or "Harry Potter and the
Chamber of Secrets" for delivery into the US may infringe US copyright
laws unless the order is for a library (in which case up to 5 copies
may be ordered) or for use by the government.

So, at this point, we are not automatically fulfilling orders for
multiple copies of "Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone/Chamber of
Secrets" with a delivery address in the United States and,
accordingly, we have cancelled your order for this title.

     I have sent back a message stating that the books that I ordered are
indeed for a library. We'll see what happens from here. The third book in
the Harry Potter series will be released on July 8 in England. I have
ordered three copies of that, too. I have not heard yet that that order
has been cancelled.





Belinda Holbrook
Media Specialist
Madison School
Davenport, IA
holbrook@revealed.net

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