Yoko Ono, EMI drop suits over Lennon song ('Imagine' vs. "Expelled" fair use lawsuit)

Reuters ^ | Wed Oct 8, 1:15 AM ET | (Reporting by Ajay Kamalakaran in Bangalore; Editing by Louise Heavens)

[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.

[weegee]

I blame Paul (or his double). Originally Yoko set her sights on the cute one. He pawned her off on John.

I think this is part of the reason that Yoko still comes to such blows with Paul in Beatles’ negotiations.

[RobRoy]

Anybody remember the “My Sweet Lord” vs “He’s So Fine” lawsuit.

They were literally two completely different sets of lyrics set to the exact same tune - chorus, verse and all.

[AnnGora]

“I blame Paul (or his double). Originally Yoko set her sights on the cute one. He pawned her off on John.”

That’s Yoko’s story. I don’t believe it.

John didn’t stand a chance against such a strong willed person as Yoko. He may have been uber-talented, but he was basically a weak man. During their honeymoon phase (the bed-ins, the bag-ins, etc.), I think both of them had a screw loose. Unfortunately, when John began to regain his sanity and a little manhood around 1979 and 1980, he was killed. Yoko still gnaws on his corpse.

A despicable woman.