Remember Yoko Ono’s long standing feud with Ben Stein and his creationist doc, “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed,” which used part of John Lennon’s “Imagine,” without consent from his estate?
Last we left off in this case, “Expelled” was being re-released for the summer (it did surprisingly well at the box-office for a documentary) and Ono had lost her initial lawsuit when Stein and Creation Media (the people behind ‘Expelled’) hid behind the fair-use doctrine.
Well Ono and EMI have dropped their copyright infringement lawsuits against the makers of a documentary because they were basically never going to win and they knew it. Fair-use is an important doctrine, but it still seems fucked up, that shifty-propaganda-ists like Creation media can use songs in their films without your consent. They did the same thing to indie-rockers The Killers and basically lied to them to get one of their songs in the film and the trick worked [Reuters]
Yea, it is pretty fucked up, but I guess it’s pretty smart on the makers behalf. Oh well.
On a side note, I noticed Ghost Town featured the actual Beatles recording of I’m Looking Through You. Last time I checked, it was nearly impossible to secure rights to actual Beatles songs, and can only name on one hand films that feature them (Coming Home, The World According to Garp, A Bronx Tale, Bowling For Columbine). In fact, this was the same song Wes Anderson tried to get for the end of The Royal Tenebaums but couldn’t. And now its in GHOST TOWN! WTF?
“Ghost Town,” seriously?? God, a plumeting music industry and economic times are really fucking lowering standards these days.
It kinda doesn’t surprise me though.
Wait, you paid to see “Ghost Town”? 😉
Well, I don’t loathe Ricky Gervais that way you all do. I actually find him hilarious. He was the only thing that makes Ghost Town worth seeing. Therefore if you don’t like him, don’t see it, as there’s nothing else there…but i’m sure you already knew that anyway.
I’d give my left nut to so much as see Gervais cut his toenails.
Just sayin’