As Harry Potter fans go, Will Collier is not particularly passionate. But he said he "got caught up in the hype" and decided to buy a copy of HP 7 from DeepDiscount.com.

"I placed an order a couple of weeks ago," said Collier, a metro Atlanta-based aerospace contractor. "I got home from work yesterday (July 17) and it was on my doorstep." Collier may be one of hundreds of DeepDiscount customers who had a similar experience.

Scholastic is accusing DeepDiscount.com and its distibutor Levy Home Entertainment of breaching on-sale agreements and shipping copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows early, with some individuals receiving them yesterday. Levy had no comment, but Andrew Moscrip, VP of Infinity Resources, DeepDiscount's parent company, told PW, "We're taking the matter very seriously and conducting an investigation."

If Scholastic's accusations are true, its meticulously orchestrated strategy to keep the book out of customers' hands until July 21 has been undone by an upstart Web site that only began selling books in February.

In a statement released yesterday, the publisher said, "We are taking immediate legal action against DeepDiscount.com and Levy Home Entertainment. The number of copies shipped is around one one-hundredth of one percent of the total U.S. copies to go on sale at 12:01 am on July 21st." Based on a 12 million-copy first printing, around 1,200 may already have made their way into readers' hands.

While the more avid fans among those readers likely began devouring the book right away, Collier put his copy up for sale on ebay without reading it--or even peeking at the end of the book to find out whether Harry lives or dies. He said he'd rather take his time reading the book. And though he sold the book, he doesn't have much use for anyone who would reveal its contents. "I think that's pretty rotten," he said. "When I was a teen-ager, I wouldn't have wanted anyone coming out of a movie theater telling me, "Darth Vader is Luke's father."

That's just the kind of thinking Scholastic hopes others have. In its statement, it said, "We are also making a direct appeal to the Harry Potter fans who bought their books from DeepDiscount.com and may receive copies early requesting that they keep the packages hidden until midnight on July 21st.

Scholastic is especially grateful to the other retailers and distributors for their careful attention to keeping the books secure until the release time and for planning thousands of spectacular midnight parties where fans will celebrate together. And we ask everyone, especially the media, to preserve the fun and excitement for fans everywhere.

The fans themselves have made it abundantly clear that they are looking forward to going to the midnight parties, receiving their very own copy of the book and finally getting to read the book they have so anxiously awaited."

For booksellers who have spent months preparing for the release, the breach raises issues about whether to honor the embargo. Elizabeth Bluemle, co-owner of The Flying Pig Bookstore in Shelburne, Vt, said there is no question what her store will do. "As far as we’re concerned, 12:01 am on July 21 is the on-sale date. That’s just ethical business practice, and even though someone has messed up--to put it mildly--we plan on sticking to the agreed-upon schedule," she said, adding, "If local and online retailers all around us began breaking the embargo, we would be very distressed, and the midnight hour might lose a little of its punch for us, but we’d still abide by our plans."

Heather Doss, children’s book buyer for Bookazine, said her company has tried hard to protect the embargo. "All of our accounts signed the affidavits about not putting the books out for sale before midnight. We’ve been very conscious about shipping the books so that they arrive as close to Friday as we can possibly get them," she said.