Sarah Palin and her publisher win Round 1 of "fair use" dispute
It's become common practice for the press to excerpt from embargoed books 鈥� but is it legal?
When Gawker leaked excerpts of her new book, Sarah Palin wondered (via Twitter): "Isn't that illegal?"
Sarah Palin was initially mocked when she protested a broken embargo on her new book, 鈥�America By Heart.鈥�
When Gawker.com posted excerpts from the book before its official Tuesday release, Palin wrote on Twitter, 鈥淭he publishing world is LEAKING out-of-context
excerpts of my book w/out my permission? Isn't that illegal?鈥�
鈥淎CTUALLY: NO,鈥� read one of the more printable responses she received on Twitter. Gawker then fired back with a post titled 鈥淪arah Palin Is Mad At Us for Leaking Pages From Her Book.鈥� According to , Gawker wrote: 鈥淪arah: If you're reading this 鈥� and if you are, welcome! 鈥� you may want to take a moment to familiarize yourself with the law 鈥�.鈥�
But that鈥檚 not . Instead, it notes that a federal judge ordered the site on Saturday to take down the book excerpts. In the order, which is also on the blog, a US District Court judge granted the request from publisher Harper Collins for a preliminary injunction preventing Gawker from 鈥渃ontinuing to distribute, publish, or otherwise transmit pages鈥� of Palin鈥檚 book.
A hearing about Gawker's posting of the excerpt is scheduled for Nov. 30.
The New York Times reported that an anti-Palin blog had also been asked to remove excerpts from the book. That blogger took down some pages but retained others, believing they were protected by fair use laws, .
Embargoes are common in modern publishing and just as commonly broken, but as far back as 2003 notes the potential legal dangers: Jen Bluestein wrote that 鈥渋n 1983 after The Nation published 300 words from Gerald Ford's then-forthcoming memoir, the publisher sued the magazine; the Supreme Court ruled that the magazine was guilty of copyright infringement.鈥�
Book embargoes exist for two reasons, Bluestein wrote at the time: 鈥淸F]irst, to maximize (and control) media coverage by building advance buzz; and second, to leverage the most money for the publisher.鈥�
earlier this month on just 鈥渢he latest commotion鈥� when an embargo was broken on President George W. Bush鈥檚 鈥�Decision Points鈥� memoir.
鈥淧ublicists may pull their hair out trying to protect their embargo and members of the media may fall over themselves to break it, but it鈥檚 hard to say if there are any winners in this game,鈥� Lowman wrote.
Curious anyway? Here鈥檚 a peek at some of what Palin鈥檚 book had to say (and what people had to say about the book). For now there鈥檚 only one authorized excerpt around 鈥� an 鈥渆xclusive sneak peek鈥� posted Saturday on .
Rebekah Denn blogs at .
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