Websites Leak Black Friday Bargains

Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is the year's busiest shopping day and retailers go to great lengths to offer attractive bargains to lure holiday crowds to their stores. Typically, discounted sale items are kept secret until Thanksgiving Day, however, websites have emerged which are publishing Black Friday sales information beforehand. Consequently, prudent shoppers can now peruse the Internet, days or weeks before Black Friday, and learn about which stores will be selling which items at deep discounts.

Certainly, the websites that specialize in disseminating sales information obtain the data from many sources. For example, GottaDeal.com encourages readers to submit breaking news on sales and, also, hosts a reader message board where visitors can jot down the latest hot shopping tips. Black Friday 2005 also publishes reader submitted information.

Another source of information is advance Black Friday ad copy, presumably obtained surreptitiously by people involved with printing or distribution and published significantly before the flood of holiday newspaper and television advertising. Legal questions have been raised about the practice of leaking Black Friday ad copy without permission since it's customarily copyrighted material. Nevertheless, leaks are apparently happening regularly.

My take is that it's ludicrous to think that anyone would ever be prosecuted under copyright law for leaking Black Friday sales information. Maybe, just maybe, if a particularly grievous offender is identified, an individual could be fired, but nobody is going to end up in court for leaking doorbuster bargain ads.

So, in a nutshell, those folks that don't mind elbowing their way through churning throngs of myopic shoppers on Black Friday (and, you know who you are), check out the best bargains listed on leaker websites before the alarm goes off at 4AM on November 25. Then put on comfortable shoes and race to get that 42-inch plasma television for less than $1,000, knowing full well that it will be a 'sold out' item before the day is over.