Will buy.com get sued?

[arscott]

Hmmm, the best I can see is breach of contract, but even that would be tenuous in court since I doubt hasbro could prove that some copies getting released early caused some sort of monetary damages. I'm willing to bet that buy.com may get a stern talking to. At worst, Hasbro could say "We aren't going to sell you any books in the future", although fat chance of THAT happening, it only hurts Hasbro.

The whole harry potter getting released early thing was hilarious, as Rowling's people made all sorts of outlandish claims that were downright silly. Release date is a pure contractual business between distributor and publisher, and there is nothing beyond that that would hold in any legal sphere IMHO.

I don't see how cutting off buy.com hurts Hasbro. It's not like the books aren't made available to customers through other online (or brick-and-mortar) storefronts. I doubt that any potential customers will avoid purchasing D&D books simply because they're not listed at buy.com.

Given that this isn't the first time that they've screwed up like this, It's entirely possible that not just WotC, but other (more important) book publishers might refuse to sell to them.

 

[Mr Jack]

The whole harry potter getting released early thing was hilarious, as Rowling's people made all sorts of outlandish claims that were downright silly. Release date is a pure contractual business between distributor and publisher, and there is nothing beyond that that would hold in any legal sphere IMHO.

Indeed it is; so the question is: what was on the contract?

 

[WhatGravitas]

Indeed it is; so the question is: what was on the contract?

Probably a contractual penalty clause. Which they have to pay - otherwise they GET sued. Not many contracts have a "Don't do that" without listing consequences.

Cheers, LT.

 

[Mr Jack]

Probably a contractual penalty clause. Which they have to pay - otherwise they GET sued. Not many contracts have a "Don't do that" without listing consequences.

That would be my guess, are you (or anyone else) familiar with the normal contractual basis for release dates like these? What kind of penalty might be expected?

 

[D20Dazza]

Smart move from Buy.com eh. Have you noticed how many people have killed their other pre-orders and instead jumped on the Buy.com bandwagon? I bet they knew that all they had to do was send out a couple of copies of the books and the boards of the various D&D/RPG sites would go bonkers, and consequently their pre-orders would go through the roof. Someone in marketing at Buy.com just got themselves a big bonus.

Cheers

Daz

 

[Dave Turner]

Smart move from Buy.com eh. Have you noticed how many people have killed their other pre-orders and instead jumped on the Buy.com bandwagon? I bet they knew that all they had to do was send out a couple of copies of the books and the boards of the various D&D/RPG sites would go bonkers, and consequently their pre-orders would go through the roof. Someone in marketing at Buy.com just got themselves a big bonus.

Cheers

Daz

It's only a smart move if they make more money from poached pre-orders than they do from penalties imposed by WotC, assuming that such penalties are forthcoming.

Unleash the lawyers, I say! Lawyers always make things better.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

It's only a smart move if they make more money from poached pre-orders than they do from penalties imposed by WotC, assuming that such penalties are forthcoming.

My thought exactly.

Lawyers always make things better.

Spoiler

I was going to make a joke on this about "slightly different opinions", but I can't remember the English equivalent to the phrase "Früher war alles besser"...

 

[pogminky]

It's been confirmed that it was buy.com then?

Were they the only ones?

Was it from their mistakes that torrents appeared or was that a bizarre conincidence?

 

[Mr Jack]

It's been confirmed that it was buy.com then?

Buy.com definetely did it. Others may also have done; at least one bulgarian FLGS is, er, more friendly.

Was it from their mistakes that torrents appeared or was that a bizarre conincidence?

The torrents (or at least some of them) were apparently taken from print masters rather than being scans. I.e. they were leaked either by someone at WotC or someone at the printers or one of the two has insufficient security.

 

[WhatGravitas]

Was it from their mistakes that torrents appeared or was that a bizarre conincidence?

Well, according to some threads, the torrents aren't scans but print files (with colour swatches, high-res and so on).

So it's either coincidence OR the guy who has got hold of the printer files thought he could get away with it after the real books shipped, as it could look like a very good scan (which is, of course, a stupid assumption!).

Cheers, LT.