Will buy.com get sued?

[reiella]

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.

Actually contract law is pretty harsh and strong to defend, if it was a hard contract, and well known to be a hard street.

Books, traditionally aren't. Scholastic had to work hard and very proactively or else the street dates would have never been acknowledged.

No longer in the retail chain myself, so I can't say to what extent this release has been. But I can say that pretty much no 3rd edition titles had hard streets [stock it when you get it]. And given that D&D books have a slightly 'taller' footprint than most books, if they were shipped with a hard date, good chance alot of retailers wouldn't even bother with pre-stock because it just won't sell enough to warrant the space investment in the stockroom.

 

[hargert]

Also while it may suck for some other retailers I think the number of people switching is overall low. However it is good PR to get the launch noticed and talked about on the web. Now the print masters that were release that is a whole different story. i am sure heads will roll over that little "error"

 

[Cadfan]

Does US law allow for the enforcement of penalty clauses?

Usually.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

I don't think there was conspiracy or marketing or anything else. I suspect that there was a low level employee who either didn't check a toggle or didn't fill in one field in the warehouse distribution program. Their distribution program probably has something that says ship immediately when in stock or wait on shipping until a certain date. If that field is wrong the warehouse employees don't care, they just fill the orders that the computer spits out.

As for the reaction. WotC could cut Buy.com off in the future, but WotC is so small that Buy.com may not care. If Hasbro cut them off they would care, but at the same time I doubt that Hasbro cares enough about one bad ship date from a small subsidiary that they would cut off a big distributer over it. Buy.com will probably just pay a very small fine (for them), write up or fire a low level employee (depending if they are unionized or not), then continue on as if nothing happened. WotC will collect that fine (also small to them), decide that it is enough compensation, then continue selling stuff in the future through Buy.com as if nothing happened. The only people likely left upset are customers who didn't get in on the early shipments, LGS's who feel that they are losing customers (which they might be but more likely due to to price point than a broken street date), and Scott Rouse and the marketing department who will likely be told that because Buy.com paid their fines they will have to live with it and adjust their strategy accordingly.

 

[joela]

upset

As for the reaction. WotC could cut Buy.com off in the future, but WotC is so small that Buy.com may not care. If Hasbro cut them off they would care, but at the same time I doubt that Hasbro cares enough about one bad ship date from a small subsidiary that they would cut off a big distributer over it. Buy.com will probably just pay a very small fine (for them), write up or fire a low level employee (depending if they are unionized or not), then continue on as if nothing happened. WotC will collect that fine (also small to them), decide that it is enough compensation, then continue selling stuff in the future through Buy.com as if nothing happened. The only people likely left upset are customers who didn't get in on the early shipments, LGS's who feel that they are losing customers (which they might be but more likely due to to price point than a broken street date), and Scott Rouse and the marketing department who will likely be told that because Buy.com paid their fines they will have to live with it and adjust their strategy accordingly.

Pretty much my take on the situ. Oh, and brick & mortar will be feeling left out since WotC will most likely tell them to stick to June 6th schedule.

 

[ShadowyFigure]

http://www.buy.com/prod/4th-edition-core-rulebook-collection/q/loc/106/206857693.html

^^

4,000%!!!

What the f***

Anyway, I'm keeping my preorder with amazon, yeh i'm gonna wait for them... because I technically already have em.

 

[Nightchilde-2]

The conspiracy theorist in me wonders if maybe buy.com and WotC might have had a deal worked out to release the books early. Look at how much hype it's generated!

'course, I never *actually* listen to my inner conspiracy theorist...

 

[filthgrinder]

My inner conspiracy theorist wonders if buy.com really did ship books. I see alot of people with the whole, "I have the books" thing. I think going, "oh, buy.com broke the release date" is a way for people to cover up the fact that they went and grabbed the leaked .pdf proof files. I mean, I haven't seen people posting pictures of them posing with the books. Plus some, "I was looking at the books at a friend's house". Just different ways for people to talk about the books without saying they downloaded pirated copies.

Anyways, if buy.com did break the ship dates, it's most likely a shipping/recieving issue with their warehousing systems. I'm a sys admin of a ERP/SCM system, and I'm well aware of how these problems can occur. Hell, it could have just been one distribution center that screwed up the release schedule.

On a side note, I find it funny how people start claiming some site broke the ship date, on the same day that leaked pdf printing proofs appear on the net.

 

[pedr]

Yes, contract law in every US jurisdiction I know of permits (encourages, even, because actual damages can take a lot of time and expense to calculate) liquidated damages.

Sure. I would have been surprised if liquidated damages were unenforceable - but people are using the word 'fine' and 'penalty', and I wonder how you could estimate/agree on a quantification of damages to WotC for the early release. All the discussion seems to suggest a true penalty clause, in the sense you used it, which we wouldn't enforce over here - apparently on the grounds that it's actually economically inefficient for people to be held to contracts which cost them less to breach than to honour, and economic efficiency being more important than holding people to their agreements. Or some such - it's been a long time, and I now avoid private law like the plague!

 

[reiella]

Sure. I would have been surprised if liquidated damages were unenforceable - but people are using the word 'fine' and 'penalty', and I wonder how you could estimate/agree on a quantification of damages to WotC for the early release. All the discussion seems to suggest a true penalty clause, in the sense you used it, which we wouldn't enforce over here - apparently on the grounds that it's actually economically inefficient for people to be held to contracts which cost them less to breach than to honour, and economic efficiency being more important than holding people to their agreements. Or some such - it's been a long time, and I now avoid private law like the plague!

'Damages' would be in rather non-quantified form as their relation with their other business partners has been damaged. Can make an argument that some of their consumer Good Will has been damaged as well.

And of course, the argument of lost sales in retail chain [more so wasted effort] from product returns to the distribution level some time later as certain stores weren't able to move their stock since someone streeted early and got all the sales.

All said, really doubtful anything will come from it. Even more doubtful we'll hear anything about it. Hasbro wants the shelf-space more than the retail chains want the product.