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Unlawful reading.
A couple times last week I mentioned Raincoast Books' injunction forcing customers to return books puchased legitimately before the book was officially released. I emailed them telling them that I would no longer purchase books from them. They wrote back that it was well within their rights as the book had not been released.
The Globe and Mail had intended to post a review of the book at 12:01 am on Saturday, to coincide with the release. On Friday they were served with legal papers enjoining them from posting that review (emphasis mine):
At 2:15 p.m. yesterday, legal papers were served on The Globe and Mail, enjoining us from publishing a promised review by Sandra Martin of the latest Harry Potter book. We had stated yesterday that we intended to post the review on globeandmail.com just after midnight and print it in today's edition of the paper. Raincoast Books, the Canadian publisher of the book, asserted that such a review violated an injunction granted, without anyone else present, by a British Columbia court last Saturday morning.Yes a Canadian court has now enshrined legal precedent for "unlawful reading", which I'm sure will come back to haunt us later. Apparently Canadians have freedom of thought but no freedom to read.[...]
That's right: Raincoast and Madam Justice Kirsti Gill rendered illegal the reading of a book without permission. Raincoast alleged that Globe writer Sandra Martin had come into possession of the book unlawfully and the review she planned to write therefore would be the product of unlawful reading and in contempt of court.