The Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School reports that a New York State court has refused to stop the distribution of the film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, holding that the movie’s use of a clip from a John Lennon recording is not likely to violate copyrights held by EMI Records and Capitol Records. The movie uses a 15 second clip of John Lennon’s “Imagine” in juxtaposition with views about religion and science. In refusing to stop the distribution of the movie, the court held that the use was probably fair. This decision comes two months after a federal district court in New York held that use of the underlying lyrics in the same song was also likely to be fair use. As the Stanford report observes, the state court decision is significant for two reasons: first, it establishes for the first time that fair use is applicable under NY State’s common law to copyrights in sound recordings; second, it calls into question the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals’ holding in another famous case, Bridgeport Music v. Dimension Films, that sampling even 2 seconds of a sound recording was infringement.
