'Potter' Printers Pay $20M to Protect Finale

Publishers hope guard dogs, armored vans will hex 'Hallows' leakers
By Greg Atwan,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 15, 2007 2:52 PM CDT
'Potter' Printers Pay $20M to Protect Finale
Noble store at Easton Towne Center in Columbus, Ohio, before the release of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince." Communities around the country that have transformed their downtowns into wizarding wonderlands to celebrate releases of the best-selling Harry Potter books don't want the magic to...   (Associated Press)

Bloomsbury is shelling out millions to keep the latest and final installment in the Harry Potter series a chamber of secrets until its on-sale date next week. The British publishers are installing extra security and even guard-dogs at way stations as the Deathly Hallows ships to booksellers, and have a coven of lawyers ready to pounce on any breach in protocol.

Workers guarding the book will be guarded themselves: Cell-phones are banned in one German printing press and the trucks delivering the vaunted volume will be outfitted with expensive new GPS systems to prevent unauthorized stops. Security experts are pegging the price of the precautions at around $20 million. (More Harry Potter stories.)

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