Long story short:Gawker published multiple pages of Sarah Palin's new book before it was released, then got snarky with her and told her to read the fair use law, linked to it and told her if she didn't want to do that to get a lawyer to explain it (paraphrasing here). Her publisher, HarperCollins, did just that. Judge ordered Gawker to remove the pages until a November 30, 2010 hearing.
Caught up? Good.
Today we see that Gawker has settled with HarperCollins who declined to comment on a monetary settlement but did issue this statement:
“HarperCollins has reached an agreement with Gawker resolving the lawsuit it filed against Gawker on Friday over Gawker’s unauthorized posting of pages from Sarah Palin’s then-unpublished book, America by Heart, which goes on sale today. In the suit, HarperCollins alleged that Gawker’s postings infringed the copyright in the book, and violated HarperCollins’ exclusive publication rights. On Saturday afternoon, Judge Thomas Griesa of the US District Court in Manhattan entered a temporary restraining order against Gawker. In an opinion issued yesterday, Judge Grisea stated that “the purpose of the copyright law is to prevent the kind of copying that has taken place here.” Judge Grisea’s opinion also said that Gawker “published what amounts to a substantial portion of the book” but “essentially engaged in no commentary or discussion”, and that it had “not used the copyrighted material to help create something new but has merely copied the material in order to attract viewers.” Immediately after the hearing, Gawker removed the offending pages from its web site as the Judge ordered.
“In settling the case, Gawker has agreed to keep the posted material off its web site and not to post the material again in the future.
“HarperCollins is gratified that it was able to resolve the dispute in this way. HarperCollins does welcome public commentary on its books so long as any book content is utilized in a manner that is consistent with the law.”
I said it when I originally wrote the first piece and I will paste it here again:
Perhaps Gawker Media should have consulted with their own attorneys before violating the copyright infringement laws instead of trying to be smart asses and telling Palin to consult hers.
They might have avoided this type of humiliation.
Palin 2, Gawker 0.
"America By Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag" was released November 23, 2010.
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