I think what Walmart, Target and the like are trying to do is to keep prices secret until they are published...most will publish them this Sunday in the paper, once that happens we can put the deals up on this site. It is not like we can do anything with the products until next Friday anyway.
This is why companies have employees sign confidentiality agreement, so that information is not leaked before the company is ready to announce it themselves.

Interesting, I was unaware that research (what it's usually called when you read several works (copyrighted or not) and distill the information into a report) was banned by the DMCA.

What? You only summarized one copyrighted work? Well, the DMCA was created to protect "content" from being digitally copied and distributed. If I looked at an advance copy of SWII-AOTC and then summarized the really good parts on a forum, I'm not distributing the "content." They could rightfully deny me an advanced copy of the next movie, but I wouldn't be subject to prosecution.

BTW - does the DMCA provide for civil damages? If not, corporations are usurping govenmental powers to police the laws. But then again, I suppose if you're big enough and you've got the executive branch in your hip pocket (they control the law enforcement agencies) you can do anything!

BTW - FW, I understand your position. There are precious few small business people who have the $$$ to defend themselves against such claims, even if false. I hope the big media picks up on this and gets the story correct.

bennenite said:

<< Unbelievable!
<minor rant>
It seems counter-productive for these big companies to upset a large group of potential consumers. After all, people come here LOOKING FOR WAYS TO SPEND MONEY. Why make them mad. These prices have been set for some time- putting them up on this board a little early is FREE ADVERTISING!
</minor rant over>

I support you Chief >>

If you couple this with the fact that every store has some sort of pricematching policy, I fail to see how do any store would get a leg up on the other?

I agree with most sentiments expressed above.

The economy is already weak. Consumers are the only component holding the survival key at this point in time. Corporations such as WalMart, Target, BestBuy, Staples and others are heading for analysts downgrades if their financial numbers slump. They wanna talk cocky now and use DMCA against FatWallet ? You know what, Tim, the consumers have the freedom to choose where they shop. And you know what, consumers and pro-consumer sites such as FatWallet have the most powerful weapon against cocky corporations - Word Of Mouth ! Let's see who has the last laugh when Wall Street punishes these few arrogant companies.

FatWallet.Com said:

<< The concern that is mentioned by every merchant that I have spoken with is this - "Competition" - They don't want their competitors to have a chance to react prior to the date of the sale when the information becomes "public" >>

BULL$#!T

As someone who works in the retail industry at the exexutive level, I can say with almost complete certainty that EVERY store knows what their competition is planning. There are moles in all companies and people leave one company for a competitor and share info. with their friends at the former company.

They can also get the info. the same way that people here do--newspaper circulars are printed and delivered in advance. They are not under lock and key.

Even if they got their competitiors' prices for the first time by reading the circulars in the newspaper on Sat/Sun (or on Thanksgiving), all it takes is a simple price change in their systems and an e-mail to all of their stores to get the price changed to match/beat the competition on Sunday morning (or Black Friday).

When K-Mart has the lowest advertised price on a DVD, WalMart always ends up beating it by a few cents THE VERY SAME DAY that the price was advertised. Now how do you think they accomplish that so quickly? Psychics????

I don't suppose posting the Black Friday info on a server that is hosted in another country would violate the DMCA.. I wonder what hosting rates in Canada are like.. hmmmm

They will be back in January begging us to buy their crap. I predict that they will not have a great season this year. The black Friday sales are the worst I have seen in years. I am holding onto my money for better deals.

Casey said:

<< When will it be "ok" to post the Black Friday sales again? I wonder if this will lead to the same companies forcing sites not to list their normal weekly ads? >>

When will it be OK? Probably Black Friday + 1 (in other words Saturday).

Let's organize a huge boycott of all of these stores, go to Bananatech, Dealhour, technobargains, etc, and post:

Save the Constitution: Don't shop at these stores on Black Friday!!! (and why)


Now it truly is a Black Friday when our basic free speech rights are being abridged by a right wing government which values large corporations' rights over our basic constitutional rights.

This really makes me angry!!!!!(in case you didn't notice)

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