Intellectual Property Law

Yoko Ono and ?Fair Use?

By Lee Gesmer

Here is a copy (below) of the June 2, 2008 decision of Judge Sidley Stein in the Southern District of New York, holding that a 15 second snippet of the Lennon song “Imagine,” within the feature length movie “Expelled“, is “fair use” under U.S. copyright law. In other words, the film makers did not infringe Yoko Ono’s copyright rights. “Expelled” is a documentary that deals with “intelligent design” (vs. Darwinism, Creationism, ect.), and is narrated by Ben Stein of Ferris Buehler fame (presumably no relation to Judge Stein, but bad luck for Yoko Ono nevertheless).

The “fair use” doctrine is a exception to the legal rights of a U.S. copyright owner; it permits non-owners to publish, without permission, parts of the work for purposes such as “criticiism, comment, news reporting, teaching … scholarship, or research.” A large body of judge-made law has built up around this doctrine, and therefore althogh it has its roots in federal statute, for the most part the fair use doctrine has been developed by the courts.

The court’s ruling on fair use is no surprise, and applies black-letter fair use law to undisputed facts. Any outcome on than a ruling in favor of fair use would have been a surprise, and subject to an immediate appeal.

Full post as published by Mass Law Blog on June 03, 2008 (boomark / email).