So, not such a world exclusive after all.

Hello! magazine has threatened legal action against several Websites that posted its leaked cover shot of new family Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and baby Shiloh Nouvel, seemingly hours after People magazine announced it landed the photo's exclusive North American rights.

Hello!, People and Getty Images, the photo agency which sold the picture's rights, will seek damages from sites that illegally reproduced the image.

Gossip blogs OhNoTheyDidn't! and Defamer.com were among the first to post the British celebrity rag's highly anticipated first shot, which features Jolie and Pitt lying on either side of their sleeping daughter. As expected, it didn't take long for the picture to make the Internet rounds, appearing on countless sites by midday Tuesday.

"We were very shocked and horrified to see that this embargo has been breached," Juliet Herd, Hello!'s feature editor, told Reuters. "Hello! is taking legal action around the world to stop Internet sites and everyone else who may seek to publish. We are sending out 'Cease and Desist' letters to each of these sites."

Not that they're doing too much good.

While the majority of gossip sites have replaced the offending picture with copies of the letter, the advent of caching, along with a few notable Website holdouts, means the photo remains readily available for all willing oglers.

Defamer.com and Gawker.com, both run by Gawker Media, have, at least as of Wednesday morning, refused to take down the image, claiming the cover photo was "never displayed outside the context of Hello!'s treatment of it nor at anything larger than thumbnail size" and their rights to publish it were covered under fair use.

Gawker.com has chronicled its correspondence with Time Inc.'s lawyers on its site.

The image, which was the only photo from a larger spread that made it online, began appearing just a day after People magazine outbid rival weeklies for the exclusive U.S. rights to the images. (Hello! scored the U.K. rights, but apparently, the Internet cares as much about jurisdiction as it does about copyright infringement.)

According to the New York Post, the U.S. magazine shelled out $4.1 million after an all-night bidding war over the weekend.

"We were sequestered into separate and un-air-conditioned offices," one of the magazine editors told Page Six Tuesday. "The photos were shown to us around 10 p.m. to midnight, and then we had to submit bids by 6 a.m. Sunday morning."

The photos were due to be published by Hello! on Thursday, with People's spread hitting newsstands Friday.

"She's got Dad's baby blues and just a soft crop of fair hair, but it's those lips--check out the super-size pout--that most gave her away," People wrote of their spread.

The magazine even got Jolie's brother--and Shiloh's uncle--James Haven to comment on the newly-expanded family, saying that eldest child Maddox "imitated the way Brad held her just perfectly. To see the father, mother, daughter--it was such a beautiful image that it overtook me."

The source of the leak, meanwhile, remains unaccounted for--that is, depending on who you ask.

"It's a complete mystery," Hello!'s Herd told Reuters. "And we are very concerned at this breach of copyright.

"It is very difficult to control the Web and this proves how rampantly out of control it is. We have absolutely no idea how the picture was leaked."

A spokesperson for People magazine, meanwhile, had other ideas.

"Somebody from Hello! must have leaked it," the unnamed rep told BBC News. "I don't know how it got there."

However it did, it makes for a particularly pricey stealing of thunder.

As for Getty Images, which Pitt and Jolie announced earlier this week would market the photos, they claim the picture could be seen more as a teaser, enticing the celeb-savvy public into seeing the rest of the shots.

"Our legal team are looking into it and we will take it from there," spokeswoman Alison Crombie told Reuters. "But I really don't think it will devalue the pictures as everyone is dying to see the full set."

Proceeds from the sale of Shiloh's first photo shoot will go to an as-yet unnamed charity of Brangelina's choosing.

Meanwhile, the new parents made their first public appearance since their daughter's entrance into the world at a press conference in Namibia, thanking their host country for ensuring their privacy and keeping the hordes of paparazzi at bay.

"We have been able to have a very special, peaceful time for our family here, exploring your country and more importantly helping with the delivery of our daughter Shiloh," Pitt said at a news conference for local journalists in Swakopmund Wednesday. "So, for that we are eternally grateful."

The couple also shot down more pesky vow-swapping rumors, saying for them, the ring's not the thing.

"There is nothing in the air," Jolie said. "The focus is on the kids, and we are obviously extremely committed to the children and as parents together. So, that kind of says it for us, and to have a ceremony on top of it is nothing."