The majesty of the law
So. You're a publisher that's publishing an popular heroic fantasy series, and you're trying to keep the very last book bottled up until the day of the official Windows 98-alike release party. Of course it doesn't work, and between piracy and random goofups on the part of your distribution arm, some copies of the book make their way out to the public.
Some of these copies make their way into the hands of reviewers, who publish reviews(with spoilers) of your book before the official release party has happened.
What do you do?
Well, if the reviewer is from a newspaper (with, and this is a very important detail, a legal department), what you do is whinge about it not being Faaaaaiiiiiirrrr to hoi polloi if they have their reading experience spoiled by someone saying nice things about the book. But if the reviewer is some guy with a weblog (and without a legal department)? You go all DMCA on his ass, nevermind that a review isn't exactly what you'd call piracy, even if it's hostile.
(a little more commentary with possible spoilers lives below the cut)
Lovely, and it's the inevitable result of a horrible law like the DMCA. If I say that Harry marries Ginny and they live happily ever after, or that Voldemort moves to the United States and becomes Vice President, bites the big one as a part of the 800 page monstrosity that concludes this retelling of the traditional "lost heir and only hope" story (I've not read any of the Harry Potter stories [the whole "muggles" thing just screams SciFi pretend elitism, which I positively *loathe*,] but the reviews make the storyline sound really familiar,) the existance of a legal department would be all that would separate me from a whiny legal notice1,2 telling me to stop being mean under penalty of the law.
It's what happens when a government is captured by big business and the propertied classes. It's not quite as blatant as replacing the Great Seal of the United States with a pair of shears rampant with the motto "your money or your life", but it's pretty close.
- In the USA, the teeny detail that I've never actually seen the source work or entered into a contract is not important. The idea of ignoring vendors and prosecuting consumers is really appealing to entertainment companies who find it an offense before G-d that they have to actually produce something before they can get paid.
- If you're Scholastic and you want to get all DMCA on my ass for the whole Voldemort thing, please send registered mail to my surface mail address3. I have a fairly heavy-duty antispam firewall and spamassassin might think your whiny little "you're being meaaaan toooo meeeee!" email would be yet another nigerian spam.
- Please be aware that I will publish any DMCA takedown notices I receive.