• October 22, 2007

Wal-Mart is threatening legal action against Web sites that post "Black Friday" ad deals before the official Nov. 19 release date, four days before the day after Thanksgiving.

The retail giant is also threatening to find the source of the leaks among designers, printers and others who have access to sale information ahead of time as the newspaper circulars are prepared.

Blackfriday.gottadeal.com, which calls itself the "official Black Friday deal site," is urging consumers to contact Wal-Mart about the threat, saying that "if this is allowed to happen with one store, it can happen with them all, and in the future no ads will be ... released early."

--Nina M. Lentini