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Settlement Reached in Parody Suit ... (fwd)
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From: Sandy Klein <sk@starcapital.net>
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/arts/AP-Wind-Done-Gone.html
Settlement Reached in Parody Suit
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 1:41 p.m. ET
ATLANTA (AP) -- The protectors of Margaret Mitchell's ``Gone With the Wind''
have dropped their yearlong battle to stop publication of Alice Randall's
``The Wind Done Gone,'' agreeing to an out-of-court settlement.
Under the terms of the settlement, Randall's publisher, Houghton Mifflin,
agreed to make an unspecified contribution to Morehouse College, a
historically black school in Atlanta. In return, lawyers for Mitchell's
estate agreed to stop trying to block sales of Randall's book, which tells
the ``GWTW'' story from a slave's point of view.
An Atlanta judge had blocked publication of ``The Wind Done Gone'' in April
2001, ruling that it violated the copyright of Mitchell's 1936 classic about
the Civil War. A month later, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in
Atlanta ruled that the injunction was an ``extraordinary and drastic
remedy'' that ``amounts to unlawful prior restraint in violation of the
First Amendment.''
The book was published in June 2001 and was on best-seller lists for weeks.
Even though the book was already available, lawyers for the Mitchell estate
had said they would continue the lawsuit in hopes of getting damages.
Lawyers for the Mitchell trust argued that Randall appropriated characters,
scene, setting, plot and even some passages straight from ``Gone With the
Wind.''
Houghton Mifflin and Randall argued that ``The Wind Done Gone'' was a parody
protected by the First Amendment. They also maintained that, by imagining
what Scarlett O'Hara's slaves thought and felt, the book offered a new
perspective on Mitchell's story.
The publishing industry closely watched the lawsuit, which could have
affected how extensively parodies can borrow from a copyrighted works.
A similar battle had been waged over the novel ``Lo's Diary,'' an irreverent
retelling of the late Vladimir Nabokov's ``Lolita'' from the young girl's
point of view. The two sides eventually reached a deal to share royalties.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/arts/AP-Wind-Done-Gone.html
Settlement Reached in Parody Suit
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 1:41 p.m. ET
ATLANTA (AP) -- The protectors of Margaret Mitchell's ``Gone With the Wind''
have dropped their yearlong battle to stop publication of Alice Randall's
``The Wind Done Gone,'' agreeing to an out-of-court settlement.
Under the terms of the settlement, Randall's publisher, Houghton Mifflin,
agreed to make an unspecified contribution to Morehouse College, a
historically black school in Atlanta. In return, lawyers for Mitchell's
estate agreed to stop trying to block sales of Randall's book, which tells
the ``GWTW'' story from a slave's point of view.
An Atlanta judge had blocked publication of ``The Wind Done Gone'' in April
2001, ruling that it violated the copyright of Mitchell's 1936 classic about
the Civil War. A month later, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in
Atlanta ruled that the injunction was an ``extraordinary and drastic
remedy'' that ``amounts to unlawful prior restraint in violation of the
First Amendment.''
The book was published in June 2001 and was on best-seller lists for weeks.
Even though the book was already available, lawyers for the Mitchell estate
had said they would continue the lawsuit in hopes of getting damages.
Lawyers for the Mitchell trust argued that Randall appropriated characters,
scene, setting, plot and even some passages straight from ``Gone With the
Wind.''
Houghton Mifflin and Randall argued that ``The Wind Done Gone'' was a parody
protected by the First Amendment. They also maintained that, by imagining
what Scarlett O'Hara's slaves thought and felt, the book offered a new
perspective on Mitchell's story.
The publishing industry closely watched the lawsuit, which could have
affected how extensively parodies can borrow from a copyrighted works.
A similar battle had been waged over the novel ``Lo's Diary,'' an irreverent
retelling of the late Vladimir Nabokov's ``Lolita'' from the young girl's
point of view. The two sides eventually reached a deal to share royalties.