Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince released
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<p>{{date|July 16, 2005}}</p>

[[Image:Harry Potter lines.jpg|thumbnail|right|Crowds line up outside a Borders bookstore in Delaware, USA]]

{{wikipediapar|Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince}}

''[[w:Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince|Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince]]'' by [[w:J. K. Rowling|J.K. Rowling]] was released today to hundreds of special midnight parties at bookstores. The book is expected to sell tens of thousands of copies in the first hour, and the waves of fans just keep on coming. As midnight spreads across the Atlantic and the North American continent, more and more stores will start selling.

The [[w:Royal Mail|Royal Mail]] UK postal service delivered four hundred tons of the pre-ordered books this morning.

In British Columbia, fourteen copies of the book were accidentally sold at a supermarket on the 7th of July, eight days before the book's official release date. This led publishers to obtain a court order from the [[w:British Columbia|British Columbia]] Supreme Court stating that people who had received the books were forbidden from copying, selling, discussing, or reading the book.

In protest at the ruling, [[w:Richard Stallman|Richard Stallman]], an advocate of less-restrictive copyright law, [http://www.stallman.org/harry-potter.html called for a boycott of the books] after the controversial Supreme Court ruling. He called anybody who "participated in requesting, issuing, enforcing, or trying to excuse" the injunction an "enemy of human rights in Canada."

== Sources ==
* [http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/books/07/15/launching.harry.ap/ "Harry Potter frenzy begins"] on CNN.com
* [http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050712/ap_en_ce/harry_potter_early_sale_6 "Harry Potter Books Sold by Accident"] on Yahoo! News

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[[Category:World]]
[[Category:Culture and entertainment]]
[[Category:Richard Stallman]]
[[Category:Books]]

[[de:Mitternacht: Run auf Harry Potter VI erwartet]]
[[ja:『ハリー・ポッター』第6巻、英語圏で発売]]
[[pl:Światowa premiera szóstej części przygód Harry'ego Pottera]]
[[pt:Novo livro de Harry Potter é lançado em inglês]]
Crowds line up outside a Borders bookstore in Delaware, USA

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling was released today to hundreds of special midnight parties at bookstores. The book is expected to sell tens of thousands of copies in the first hour, and the waves of fans just keep on coming. As midnight spreads across the Atlantic and the North American continent, more and more stores will start selling.

The Royal Mail UK postal service delivered four hundred tons of the pre-ordered books this morning.

In British Columbia, fourteen copies of the book were accidentally sold at a supermarket on the 7th of July, eight days before the book's official release date. This led publishers to obtain a court order from the British Columbia Supreme Court stating that people who had received the books were forbidden from copying, selling, discussing, or reading the book.

In protest at the ruling, Richard Stallman, an advocate of less-restrictive copyright law,  called for a boycott of the books after the controversial Supreme Court ruling. He called anybody who "participated in requesting, issuing, enforcing, or trying to excuse" the injunction an "enemy of human rights in Canada."

de:Mitternacht: Run auf Harry Potter VI erwartet
ja:『ハリー・ポッター』第6巻、英語圏で発売
pl:Światowa premiera szóstej części przygód Harry'ego Pottera
Novo livro de Harry Potter é lançado em inglês
World Culture and entertainment Richard Stallman Books