Spell Binding

When you’re as popular as Harry Potter, someone is bound to want to profit for the little wizard’s success.

The disproportionate response to the New York Times publishing a review a couple of days ahead of the book’s sales date coupled with on-line spoilers for those who couldn’t conjure up a little patience is having the lawyers for publishers, Scholastic, in a spin.

One of the issues for Scholastic someone who obtained a copy of the book early has photographed the page purporting to spoil the ending. The image has been downloaded and distributed so quickly using peer-to-peer programs like Bit Torrent make it impossible to stop the spread – pretty much like a virus.

If you have a product that is shaping up to be a runaway success, it’s worth spending time to plan how to manage copy cats and leaks.