Expelled Lawsuit Dropped

Lennon v. Premise Media Corp. (S.D.N.Y.)

The suit filed by Yoko Ono and the children of John Lennon against the producers of Expelled, a motion picture that used a clip of the song “Imagine” without permission, was withdrawn and dismissed last month.  However, Anthony Falzone, Executive Director of Stanford’s Fair Use Project and counsel for defendants, notes:

[T]he right result came far too late. The mere pendency of these cases caused the film’s DVD distributor to shy away from releasing the full film — the version that includes the Imagine segment. So the film goes out on DVD on October 21 in censored form, illustrating the damage that even an unproved and unsupported infringement claim can do.

Previously: District Court Denies Yoko Ono Lennon’s Motion for Injunctive Relief