Yoko sues "Expelled" filmmakers over unauthorized use of "Imagine"

Fox News reports the film will be re-released in the wake of the filmmakers' victory over Yoko Ono, who claimed the filmmakers were unauthorized to use a clip of the song "Imagine." Update (6/3/08)

On Monday, Judge Sidney H. Stein of the U.S. District Court Southern District of New York ruled against Yoko Ono, holding that using a clip of the song "Imagine" in the film "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed was acceptable under the fair use doctrine, reports Law.com. He said the film's employment of "Imagine" was a "transformative use" because it incorporates the song "for purposes of criticism and commentary." Yoko's lawyers say they will appeal. The film is expected to be released on DVD in October.

Update (5/21/08)

The judge in the case says he plans to give his ruling quickly, reports the Canadian Press.

There's an interesting analysis of the case in this Wall Street Journal blog. A copyright guru indicates Yoko could lose it, but the blog also indicates the judge's questioning seemed to favor Yoko's case.

Update (5/5/08)

The Criminal Mind blog has a review of "Expelled." A box inside the review gives the author's opinion of Yoko's suit against it.

Update (5/2/08)

The filmmakers of "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" have gotten some backing in their argument that the use of "Imagine" in their film is fair use from the Fair Use Project of Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society, reports the San Jose Mercury News.

Update (4/28/08)

Timothy Sandefur of the Pacific Legal Foundation discusses the possible ramifications of the fair use issue on his blog. He seems to suggest Yoko will win, saying, "the use of a popular song in a commercial film is much closer to unfair use than is a serious discussion of the lyrics of a song in, say, a classroom setting or a free televised debate."

Update (4/27/08)

The issue of fair use as related to Yoko's suit (and those by others) against the movie "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" has drawn a lot of commentary on the Internet. The Wall Street Journal reviewed how bloggers concluded that Yoko had licensed the song for the film, when in fact, she hadn't. A WSJ blog noted ironically that the film's figurehead, Ben Stein, is himself a lawyer and that "when producers want to use a song in a film or television program, they need permission from at least two parties: the song’s publisher and the record label that distributes the recording they want to use." A lot of the discussion surrounding the movie has gone heavily into sensitive political areas and has become a hot subject on message boards.

Update (4/25/08)

Premise Media has responded to Yoko Ono's lawsuit, citing the fair use doctrine as justification for the use of the song "Imagine" in their movie. Here's their response:

Executive Producers of EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed Statement on Lawsuit by Yoko Ono
The fair use doctrine is a well established copyright principle based on the belief that the public is entitled to freely use portions of copyrighted materials for purposes of commentary and criticism.
We are disappointed therefore that Yoko Ono and others have decided to challenge our free speech right to comment on the song Imagine in our documentary film.
Based on the fair use doctrine, news commentators and film documentarians regularly use material in the same way we do in "EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed".
Premise Media acknowledges that Ms. Yoko Ono did not license the song for use in the Film. Instead, a very small portion of the song was used under the fair use doctrine.
Unbiased viewers of the film will see that the "Imagine" clip was used as part of a social commentary in the exercise of free speech and freedom of inquiry. Unbiased viewers of the film will also understand that the "Imagine" clip was used to contrast the messages in the Documentary and that the clip was not used as an endorsement within "Expelled."

Premise Media has also responded to the objections of XVIVO over the use of images from their film, "The Life of a Cell," which we mentioned in our report yesterday.

(4/24/2008) Yoko Ono filed suit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan Wednesday over what Ono says is the unauthorized use of the song "Imagine" in the recent film "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" by Ben Stein, reports Reuters. Yoko, along with her son Sean and stepson Julian Lennon, and music publisher EMI Blackwood Music Inc, filed the suit against against the film's producers and distributors Premise Media Corporation, C&S Production LP and Rocky Mountain Pictures. to bar them from continuing to use "Imagine" in the film. The producers say the use is allowable under the fair use doctrine, which allows the use of copyrighted materials for the purposes of commentary and criticism. Premise has also come under fire from XVIVO over the use of images from their "The Life of a Cell." in the same film.

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