Jon Fine, a Knopf lawyer, cited two precedents. In a 1985 decision over an article in The Nation magazine that quoted about 300 words from the former President Gerald Ford's memoirs before official publication, the
Supreme Court ruled that the magazine had violated his publisher's copyright by printing his words before the book's scheduled release. Jane Ginsburg noted that copyright protected only an author's forms of expression, not facts. The A.P. mainly reported facts from Mr. Clinton's memoirs verbatim without quoting at length, potentially avoiding infringement. Without direct quotes or close paraphrases, Professor Ginsburg said, there is no copyright claim, even though there could be considerable economic consequences.
And in a case in 1918, Mr. Fine argued, the court found a right to protect proprietary hot news from early release in a case involving The A.P. and another wire service. Roger Zissu, a copyright lawyer who sued The Nation in the Ford case, said he doubted the
hot news precedent would apply. People are not going to read the paper and then not buy the book, Mr. Zissu said.
Publisher tries to stop leaks from Clinton's My Life