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A judge ruled in US court that the use of John Lennon's song 'Imagine' in a documentary is allowed under the fair use US copyright law. Lennon's family and EMI Blackwood Music, which administers the rights to the song, were the plaintiffs and the defendants were Premise Media et al, the producers of the documentary 'EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed.' This is a film about 'intelligent design' and attacks the theory of Darwinism. A 15 second clip of the song is used in a part of the movie that shows a young girl dancing and a close-up of Stalin waving. The lyrics used are 'nothing to kill or die for / and no religion too.' This constitutes 0.27% of the film.
There were four main factors that the judge ruled on. The purpose and character of the use, whether used for commercial or non-profit, was ruled to be less commercial and more 'transformative.' By that, the judge meant that the use of the song by the filmmakers showed the original work used with new expression and meaning. The nature of the copyright work is clearly creative, but the songs appearance in the film did not outweigh the important transformative use made of it. The amount and substantiality of the portion was under question. While the clip was 15 seconds of a three minute song, the plaintiffs used a musicologist to argue that the clip was from the 'heart' of the song and the repeating phrase used appears in over 50% of the song itself. The judge ruled that the song is repetitive and no part of the song could have been used without using that part and also that the recognizable part of the song was key in the use in the film. The last factor, the effect of the use on the potential market and value of the copyright work, the judge ruled that the use fell into the 'tranformative market.' The judge concluded that the injunction could not be granted because the fair use of the copyright would prevail in any trial awarded.