Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed - Copyright Controversies

Copyright Controversies

Resource DVDs distributed in pre-release promotions of the film included animation sequences portraying the internal functioning of cells that were seen to resemble a video from Harvard University entitled The Inner Life of the Cell produced by XVIVO. XVIVO issued a cease-and-desist letter, alleging infringement of copyright and asserting further legal remedies would be pursued unless the infringed segments from the Inner Life video were removed prior to the film's distribution. Expelled's producers then filed a legal complaint for declaratory judgment, asking the court to rule XVIVO had no ownership claim to The Inner Life of the Cell and that the producers did not violate copyright law in either its resource DVD or the film itself. The complaint stated the animation sequences in its resource DVD were different from those used in the final film. XVIVO, L.L.C. and Premise Media eventually reached an agreement that no copyright infringement had occurred and the complaints were dropped.

In April 2008, the copyright holders to John Lennon's song "Imagine", Yoko Ono, Julian and Sean Lennon, filed a legal complaint in the Southern District of New York against Premise Media and Rocky Mountain Pictures alleging copyright and trademark infringement over the unlicensed use of a portion of the song in the film. Ono came under attack in the blogosphere when critics of the film falsely assumed she agreed to license the song for use in a film defending intelligent design. Ono's lawyer claimed the use was unauthorized, while the film's producers claimed their use was protected under the fair use doctrine. Following a court motion filed by the plaintiffs on April 30, 2008, both parties consented during conference with presiding judge Sidney H. Stein to a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the distribution of any additional copies of the film in theaters or distribution of the film on DVD pending a hearing set for May 19. On that date the court heard oral arguments for a plaintiff motion seeking a preliminary injunction against any distribution of the film and a defense motion seeking to dismiss the case. The TRO remained in effect pending the judge's rulings on these motions. In June 2008 the judge ruled against both, while finding the plaintiffs failed to show the balance of hardships tipped in their favor and that the defendants' claim of fair use would likely succeed in a full trial. On October 8 Yoko Ono announced she would no longer pursue the lawsuit. The DVD version of the film, released in October 2008, does not contain the song segment because the decision came too late to allow the song to appear in the DVD.