For further proof that getting an entire species to behave in accordance with a single set of rules, we point to a recent mistake by a grocery store in Canada (names, except Canada’s and one judge who’s due for her fifteen minutes are excluded to protect the innocent). Yes, it appears that someone accidentally shelved the new Harry Potter and, gasp!, someone accidentally bought it. You’d think with all this modern technology and the ability to send a man to the moon and whatnot, there’d be a way to stop customers from buying books.
Oh wait, there is: the legal system. Yes, a fourteen-book mistake required the intervention of a judge. Thankfully, the judge had a solution. We will sleep easier as we drive to the office.
Justice Kristi Gill last Saturday ordered customers not to talk about the book, copy it, sell it or even read it before it is officially released at 12:01 a.m. July 16.
The order also compels them to return the novel to the publisher, Raincoast Book Distribution Ltd., until the official release. At that time it will be returned to them.
