"Our moral and intellectual superiors" is how Kathy Shaidle refers to journalists when they do something really stupid.

When Sarah Palin tweeted

The publishing world is LEAKING out-of-context excerpts of my book w/out my permission? Isn't that illegal?MT @C4Palin http://bit.ly/cD6DOQ 6:10 PM Nov 18th via Twitter for BlackBerry ®

There was an immediate response from people who either constitute the "great and good" American intelligentsia, or think they do.

David Frum said

RT @SarahPalinUSA: The publishing world is LEAKING out-of-context excerpts of my book w/out my permission? Isn't that illegal?/ ACTUALLY: NO 6:14 PM Nov 18th via TweetDeck

African-American blogger Oliver Willis tweeted

sarah palin thinks leaking book excerpts is illegal. sweet jesus, she aint quick. http://gaw.kr/b2xzS2 4:13 PM Nov 19th via web

In the spirit of Maureen Dowd, I'm going to imagine that these tweets would have been   followed by the words "You stupid woman!" if not for the 140 character limit.

And while Frum has a lot of really bright thoughts about torts, contract law and the Harper v. Nation case, and Oliver Willis is not nearly as clear-thinking, a Federal Judge, who granted an injunction against the bloggers who published the leak,  and the lawyers at HarperCollins say they're both wrong, and Palin, whose moral instincts are pretty reliable, was right. [Gawker, HarperCollins resolve copyright suit over Palin’s book, New Statesman, November 24, 2010]

This is not the New York Times publishing national security secrets, or libeling someone, both protected under the First Amendment—this was a plain case of theft and copyright violation.

And the "Great and good" could have figured that out if they hadn't been blinded by hate.