A great PR move by the palace

This Kate Middleton scenario makes for a great case study. I have a few American readers here, so I'll lay it out clearer.

The background:

Kate Middleton is Prince William's (the future king of England) girlfriend. Recently rumours have been spreading that the two will become engaged. As such, our infamous paparazzi have been relentlessly pursuing Kate Middleton hoping to snap up some pictures and sell them on to national newspapers for prices ranging from £5k - £30k.

Our paparazzi work in groups of two, once Kate leaves her house one member of the team will shout the most offensive thing he can think of, and when Kate turns around with a look of complete contempt or outrage, the other snaps a wallet-busting picture.

The problem:

Prince William is the son of Princess Diana. Princess Diana died in a Paris car crash nearly a decade ago as a result of being hounded by the press. (Quite literally, they were chasing her car when it spun out of control and crashed). Princess Diana was much-loved in the UK and people will no longer accept paparazzi pursuing Kate in the same manner they did with Diana. However, most of these pictures are not coming from staff, they're coming from "freelancers" with nobody to answer to. And I use the term "freelancers" very loosely.

The palace would rather not pursue legal action against the paparazzi for invasion of privacy. Legal action will just restrict the distance from which they can take pictures, it wont stop the pictures. Eliminating the demand for them will do.

The Solution:

My guess is that someone from the palace or Kate's legal representatives (who are receiving an interesting amount of exposure) made a deal with News International (Rupert Murdoch's company which owns The Sun, News of The World, The Times, Sunday Times and the London Paper) to publicly state they won't purchase Kate's pictures anymore. This would be in return for a few exclusives pictures and interviews further down the line if/when they get engaged.

It really is a great PR move:

• Every News International title gains plenty of public support and widespread media attention.
  
• They begin a trend. The public begin to turn against papers which do carry these pictures, and as a result they will have to enact this ban themselves without the benefits which the News International papers received.
  
• Kate Middleton is left alone. The press will no longer spend as much time trying to dig up dirt about her.
  
• The story has been twisted. The focus over the past week hasn't been on Kate Middleton, it's been on the paparazzi which are hounding her. This makes things quite comical, as now you have Kate leaving her home, pursued by the paparazzi, who are pursued by TV crews/journalists.