Subject: Eleventh Circuit lifts copyright injunction on "The Wind Done Gone"
NINCH-ANNOUNCE (david@ninch.org)
Date: Fri, 25 May 2001 17:36:06 -0400
Message-Id: <v0421011db7347fd8acd8@[192.100.21.23]> Date: Fri, 25 May 2001 17:36:06 -0400 To: ninch-announce@cni.org From: NINCH-ANNOUNCE <david@ninch.org> Subject: Eleventh Circuit lifts copyright injunction on "The Wind Done Gone"
NINCH ANNOUNCEMENT
News on Networking Cultural Heritage Resources
from across the Community
May 25, 2001
Eleventh Circuit Court Lifts Copyright Injunction on "The Wind Done Gone"
<http://eon.law.harvard.edu/openlaw/eldredvreno/wind_done_gone.html>
Court Order Conflicts with Eldred v. Reno statement
on Copyrights & First Amendment.
>Date: Fri, 25 May 2001 16:35:36 -0400
>To: cc@eon.law.harvard.edu
>From: Wendy Seltzer <wendy@seltzer.com>
>Subject: [Copyright's_Commons] Eleventh Circuit lifts copyright
>injunction on "The Wind Done Gone"
>Sender: cc@cyber.law.harvard.edu
Citing the First Amendment to the Constitution, the Eleventh Circuit
Court of Appeals today lifted the injunction on publication of Alice
Randall's "The Wind Done Gone":
"It is manifest that the entry of a preliminary injunction in this
copyright case was an abuse of discretion in that it represents an
unlawful prior restraint in violation of the First Amendment."
The order frees Randall to publish her novel, alternately described
as a parody of or sequel to Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With the Wind."
The Eleventh Circuit's order is in direct conflict with the D.C.
Circuit's statement in Eldred v. Reno, that "copyrights are
categorically immune from challenges under the First Amendment."
Rather than follow the D.C. Circuit's limited First Amendment
scrutiny of copyright's restrictions, the Eleventh Circuit declared
the copyright-based injunction to be an "unlawful prior restraint."
Mitchell's estate won the earlier injunction from an Atlanta district
court on the claim that Randall's novel was an unauthorized sequel
copied from "Gone With the Wind." Randall argued that her work, told
from the perspective of Scarlett O'Hara's slave-born half-sister, was
permissible artistic comedy or parody, making fair use of Mitchell's
work. Under the 56-year copyright term in effect when Mitchell
wrote "Gone With the Wind," the entire world of Tara should have
become public domain in 1993.
A copy of the order is online at
<http://eon.law.harvard.edu/openlaw/eldredvreno/wind_done_gone.html>.
The Eleventh Circuit says an expanded opinion will follow.
Links to earlier commentary on the case may be found at the
Openlaw/Eldred v. Reno website:
<http://eon.law.harvard.edu/openlaw/eldredvreno/>.
-- Wendy Seltzer -- wendy@seltzer.com Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/seltzer.html============================================================== NINCH-Announce is an announcement listserv, produced by the National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage (NINCH). The subjects of announcements are not the projects of NINCH, unless otherwise noted; neither does NINCH necessarily endorse the subjects of announcements. We attempt to credit all re-distributed news and announcements and appreciate reciprocal credit.
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