Posted on 10/09/2008 10:38:15 AM PDT by weegee
John Lennon's widow Yoko Ono and EMI Records, the world's fourth largest music company, dropped copyright infringement lawsuits against the makers of a documentary that used the portion of the song "Imagine" without permission.
The news was made public on Tuesday by a Stanford Law School's Fair Use Projects release.
The dismissal follows unsuccessful attempts by Yoko Ono in federal court and EMI Records in state court to enjoin Premise Media Corp's documentary, "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed," because it uses a 15-second clip of the song.
"We think it was clear from the beginning that our clients had every right to use the 'Imagine' clip as they did, and we're happy we've vindicated that right," Anthony Falzone...
The documentary looks at alleged discrimination against scientists and teachers who support so-called intelligent design as an alternative to Darwin's theory of evolution.
In his blog, Falzone said the song won't appear in the DVD version of the documentary as the move came too late.
"The mere tendency of these cases caused the film's DVD distributor to shy away from releasing the full film -- the version that includes the Imagine segment," Falzone said in his blog.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
The problem with fair use is that it costs too much money to protect your right. Something needs to change.
Money grubbing, right-wing, capitalist pig! “Imagine” is the people’s song! Yoko Ono is suing to have the rights to make MONEY off “Imagine”???? This calls for action! “NO JUSTICE...NO PEACE!!!!”
I wonder how much money Ben Stein and the makers of Expelled had to spend on lawyers?
Whatever the cost of the lawyers it was a drop in the bucket for Yoko Ono and EMI but not for Stein and the makers of Expelled...
Imagine a world without Yoko...
Money grubbing, right-wing, capitalist pig! “Imagine” is the people’s song! Yoko Ono is suing to have the rights to make MONEY off “Imagine”???? This calls for action! “NO JUSTICE...NO PEACE!!!!”
Imagine a world without lawyers.
“Imagine a world without Yoko.” -C14
“Imagine a world without lawyers” -weegee
The meter fits, I smell a parody.
Perhaps you should take a look at what copyright is. I refer you to the U.S. Constitution.
Anything published under copyright is supposed to eventually go into the public domain. So, yes, it IS the people's song. Copyright just lets the copyright holder make some money off of it for a while.
And there are specific areas where copyright can be legally infringed. Parodies and educational use are common examples.
Expect to hear from EMI soon about your unauthorized use of a portion of the lyrics...
It was a bit of irony, but apparently it went over some heads.
Yeppers... amazing how many people don’t know that.
I dont care what anyone says-Yoko broke up the Beatles by hooking John on heroin, then forced him to do the Plastic Ono album with all the screeching, and finally getting all of his money. Yoko is to be scorned, ashamed and run over by a garbage truck..
In fact, my problem was with the sarcasm.
Once you publish something under copyright, you have declared that the material really does belong to the people.
These aren't dirty, smelly hippies that want to squat on your back lawn.
These are people exercising their Constitutional right to a Fair Use exemption to copyright.
It would be like having someone sue you for using a Citizen's Band radio, trying to keep you off of those frequencies. And you suing right back, because CB frequencies are yours to use by law.
I agree to a point, but John was a willing participant. He deserves all the blame for unloading Yoko upon the world.
I blame our educational system. Doesn't anyone teach the Constitution anymore?
When I was a youngster we had to take an entire year of Government. Twice. In 7th grade it was state government and in 10th grade it was U.S. Government. Both were "must pass" courses. You couldn't graduate without passing.
I think this part happened a long time ago.
You may say you're a Marxist
But you're sure a greedy one
You're making money off Lennon
Make it free for everyone!
Did the doctors ever remove that cat that got stuck inside her throat?
Well played.
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