National Book Store claims exclusive distribution rights to ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’

MANILA, Philippines (2nd UPDATE) – Potterheads in the Philippines were hyped about the release of the published special rehearsal edition script of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, but according to bookstore chain National Book Store, they have exclusive distribution rights to the book in the country.

This comes after the Asia office of Scholastic, a publishing company which printed the US edition, announced in a social media post that they “have discovered that Fully Booked, a bookstore chain in the Philippines has been selling an unauthorized edition of Harry Potter and Cursed Child – Parts One and Two (Special Rehearsal Edition Script).”

Having partnered with Scholastic, National Book Store said in a statement provided to the media: “We are very honored to have been granted exclusive distribution rights of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – Parts One & Two (Special Rehearsal Edition Script) in the Philippines.”

“It has been an undertaking to be able to distribute the book to all our 205 stores nationwide in time for the worldwide release on July 31, 2016, at 7:01 am, and we are delighted to have provided thousands of Harry Potter fans an opportunity to read the book.

The statement continued, referring to its P1,417.50 price point on launch day: “Historically, we have always endeavored to keep pricing in line with the cover price of a particular title, despite the difficulties of distribution throughout our widespread archipelago.”

National Book Store provided P600 worth of gift certificates to customers who pre-ordered the book.

Its competitor, Fully Booked, sold the UK edition published by Little, Brown at P999.

“We find ourselves in a unique situation where an English-language book sourced from the United Kingdom is cheaper than the same title sourced from the United States, because of the massive recent devaluation of the British Pound,” National Book Store said.

“However, in the publishing world, exclusive distribution rights of English-language books in a particular country, including the Philippines, are assigned by the author. In our country such distribution rights are traditionally assigned to US publishers. We are ethically and legally bound to honor the territorial rights of our long time partners such as Scholastic US.”

“The actions taken by one of our competitors in bringing in unauthorized copies of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – Parts One & Two (Special Rehearsal Edition Script) have compelled us to explore all legal and commercial remedies to protect our rights within Philippine and international law.

Rappler has reached out to Fully Booked for comment.

We thank all our customers for their loyalty and patronage,” the statement concluded.

The published Cursed Child special rehearsal edition script was released globally on July 31, Sunday, a day after the stage play officially premiered at the Palace Theatre in London’s West End. – Rappler.com