After the gossip Web site Gawker published unauthorized excerpts of Sarah Palin’s forthcoming book America by Heart — including 14 partial page-scans — Palin took to Twitter to ask: “Isn’t that illegal?”
Gawker’s Maureen O’Connor responded by taunting Palin, suggesting the former Alaska governor might “want to take a moment to familiarize yourself with the law.”
Oops. Palin’s publisher, Harper Collins, went to court and Saturday afternoon, a federal judge issued a restraining order requiring Gawker to take down its excerpts. Associated Press reports:
The injunction prohibits Gawker from “continuing to distribute, publish or otherwise transmit pages from the book” pending a hearing on Nov. 30.
A source familiar with the case told me: “The judge found probable cause that Gawker violated copyright and ordered Gawker to pull the leaked pages and appear in court to defend themselves and explain why this wasn’t a violation of copyright and why the leaked pages shouldn’t be permanently removed. . . . This is a huge victory for HarperCollins’ lawyers.”
Governor Palin has now published her own “sneak peek” at the new book.