In court yesterday, Yoko Ono lost a battle to keep one of John Lennon’s most popular and impacting songs, “Imagine,” out of Ben Stein’s upcoming film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. The film is an attempt by Stein to bring more credibility to the theory of “intelligent design,” an opponent to the more commonly accepted belief in evolution.
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In court yesterday, Yoko Ono lost a battle to keep one of John Lennon’s most popular and impacting songs, “Imagine,” out of Ben Stein’s upcoming film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. The film is an attempt by Stein to bring more credibility to the theory of “intelligent design,” an opponent to the more commonly accepted belief in evolution.
“Imagine” is used for 15 seconds in the film as part of a segment that introduces what Stein sees as the “dangers” of “nothing to kill or die for/no religion too.” Ono believes that the nature of the song’s inclusion is a form of “layered criticism and commentary of the song.” Thus, she took her case to court with the goal of having the song removed from the film.
Judge Stein (whose last name appears to be a coincidence) did see some substance to Ono’s argument. Upon watching the clip in which “Imagine” is playing, Judge Stein reasons, “The movie uses the excerpt of “Imagine” to criticize what the filmmakers see as the naiveté of John Lennon’s views.”
Despite Judge Stein’s awareness of the transformative nature of the film’s portrayal of the song, he still ruled in favor of the song’s inclusion, on the grounds that such a transformative portrayal will not “usurp the market for licensing [“Imagine”] for traditional uses.”
Unfortunately Ono, who was fighting for “Imagine” on grounds more important than financial, lost her battle-for now. There is still a parallel suit filed by EMI pending that may save the song yet.
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