Leaked pages of Sarah Palin’s upcoming book were pulled off the web by Gawker Media after a federal injunction ordered the website to cease “continuing to distribute, publish, or otherwise transmit pages from the book” pending the outcome of a court hearing on November 30th. Palin’s book, “America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag” is scheduled to be released on Tuesday, a week before the hearing date.
HarperCollins, which is owned by NewsCorp, is the publisher of Palin’s book. HarperCollins filed a lawsuit on Friday and a hearing was held on Saturday afternoon in New York where Judge Thomas Griesa signed the injunction.
Pre-publication leaks are quite common, so the injunction prohibiting Gawker Media from publishing excerpts from Palin’s book on its blog is a little surprising. Leaks usually occur because news organizations buy the book before its official release date. Gawker did not explain where it obtained excerpts from Palin’s book but other websites on the web also have bits and pieces.
HarperCollins sent a cease and desist letter to Gawker Media, which was ignored, and so the publisher then filed its lawsuit in federal court on Friday in New York. HarperCollins spokeswoman Erin Crum issued a statement which said “We believe that the reprinting of pages from Governor Palin’s book without permission constitutes blatant infringement of copyright”.
